Biomaterial Database

The impact of microsaccades on vision: towards a unified theory of saccadic function. 2013

Susana Martinez-Conde, and Jorge Otero-Millan, and Stephen L Macknik

Department of Neurobiology, Barrow Neurological Institute, 350W. Thomas Rd., Phoenix, Arizona 85013, USA. smart@neuralcorrelate.com

When we attempt to fix our gaze, our eyes nevertheless produce so-called 'fixational eye movements', which include microsaccades, drift and tremor. Fixational eye movements thwart neural adaptation to unchanging stimuli and thus prevent and reverse perceptual fading during fixation. Over the past 10 years, microsaccade research has become one of the most active fields in visual, oculomotor and even cognitive neuroscience. The similarities and differences between microsaccades and saccades have been a most intriguing area of study, and the results of this research are leading us towards a unified theory of saccadic and microsaccadic function.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D005403	Fixation, Ocular	Positioning and accommodation of eyes that allows the image to be brought into place on the FOVEA CENTRALIS of each eye.	Focusing, Ocular,Ocular Fixation,Eye Gaze,Eye Gazes,Gaze, Eye,Gazes, Eye,Ocular Focusing
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D012438	Saccades	An abrupt voluntary shift in ocular fixation from one point to another, as occurs in reading.	Pursuit, Saccadic,Saccadic Eye Movements,Eye Movement, Saccadic,Eye Movements, Saccadic,Movement, Saccadic Eye,Movements, Saccadic Eye,Pursuits, Saccadic,Saccade,Saccadic Eye Movement,Saccadic Pursuit,Saccadic Pursuits
D014785	Vision, Ocular	The process in which light signals are transformed by the PHOTORECEPTOR CELLS into electrical signals which can then be transmitted to the brain.	Vision,Light Signal Transduction, Visual,Ocular Vision,Visual Light Signal Transduction,Visual Phototransduction,Visual Transduction,Phototransduction, Visual,Transduction, Visual
D014796	Visual Perception	The selecting and organizing of visual stimuli based on the individual's past experience.	Visual Processing,Perception, Visual,Processing, Visual
D015835	Ocular Motility Disorders	Disorders that feature impairment of eye movements as a primary manifestation of disease. These conditions may be divided into infranuclear, nuclear, and supranuclear disorders. Diseases of the eye muscles or oculomotor cranial nerves (III, IV, and VI) are considered infranuclear. Nuclear disorders are caused by disease of the oculomotor, trochlear, or abducens nuclei in the BRAIN STEM. Supranuclear disorders are produced by dysfunction of higher order sensory and motor systems that control eye movements, including neural networks in the CEREBRAL CORTEX; BASAL GANGLIA; CEREBELLUM; and BRAIN STEM. Ocular torticollis refers to a head tilt that is caused by an ocular misalignment. Opsoclonus refers to rapid, conjugate oscillations of the eyes in multiple directions, which may occur as a parainfectious or paraneoplastic condition (e.g., OPSOCLONUS-MYOCLONUS SYNDROME). (Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, p240)	Brown Syndrome,Brown Tendon Sheath Syndrome,Brown's Syndrome,Convergence Insufficiency,Eye Movement Disorders,Internuclear Ophthalmoplegia,Ocular Torticollis,Opsoclonus,Parinaud Syndrome,Skew Deviation,Smooth Pursuit Deficiency,Brown's Tendon Sheath Syndrome,Convergence Excess,Cyclophoria,Deficiency, Smooth Pursuit,Eye Motility Disorders,Parinaud's Syndrome,Paroxysmal Ocular Dyskinesia,Pseudoophthalmoplegia,Spasm of Conjugate Gaze,Syndrome, Brown's Tendon Sheath,Tendon Sheath Syndrome of Brown,Browns Syndrome,Conjugate Gaze Spasm,Conjugate Gaze Spasms,Convergence Excesses,Convergence Insufficiencies,Cyclophorias,Deficiencies, Smooth Pursuit,Deviation, Skew,Deviations, Skew,Dyskinesia, Paroxysmal Ocular,Dyskinesias, Paroxysmal Ocular,Excess, Convergence,Eye Motility Disorder,Eye Movement Disorder,Gaze Spasms, Conjugate,Insufficiencies, Convergence,Insufficiency, Convergence,Internuclear Ophthalmoplegias,Ocular Dyskinesia, Paroxysmal,Ocular Dyskinesias, Paroxysmal,Ocular Motility Disorder,Ophthalmoplegia, Internuclear,Ophthalmoplegias, Internuclear,Parinauds Syndrome,Paroxysmal Ocular Dyskinesias,Pseudoophthalmoplegias,Pursuit Deficiencies, Smooth,Pursuit Deficiency, Smooth,Skew Deviations,Smooth Pursuit Deficiencies,Syndrome, Brown,Syndrome, Brown's,Syndrome, Parinaud,Syndrome, Parinaud's
D019336	Cognitive Science	The study of the precise nature of different mental tasks and the operations of the brain that enable them to be performed, engaging branches of psychology, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)	Cognitive Sciences,Science, Cognitive,Sciences, Cognitive