Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions

Microsaccades are involuntary eye movements occurring naturally during fixation. In this study, microsaccades were investigated under monocularly and binocularly stimulated conditions with respect to their directional distribution and rate signature, that refers to a curve reporting the frequency mo...

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Main Authors: Peter Essig, Alexander Leube, Katharina Rifai, Siegfried Wahl
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
Series:Journal of Eye Movement Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/6691
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author Peter Essig
Alexander Leube
Katharina Rifai
Siegfried Wahl
author_facet Peter Essig
Alexander Leube
Katharina Rifai
Siegfried Wahl
author_sort Peter Essig
collection DOAJ
description Microsaccades are involuntary eye movements occurring naturally during fixation. In this study, microsaccades were investigated under monocularly and binocularly stimulated conditions with respect to their directional distribution and rate signature, that refers to a curve reporting the frequency modulation of microsaccades over time. For monocular stimulation the left eye was covered by an infrared filter. In both stimulation conditions, participants fixated a Gabor patch presented randomly in orientation of 45° or 135° over a wide range of spatial frequencies appearing in the center of a monitor. Considering the microsaccadic directions, this study showed microsaccades to be preferably horizontally oriented in their mean direction, regardless of the spatial characteristics of the grating. Furthermore, this outcome was found to be consistent between both stimulation conditions. Moreover, this study found that the microsaccadic rate signature curve correlates between both stimulation conditions, while the curve given for binocular stimulation was already proposed as a tool for estimation of visual performance in the past. Therefore, this study extends the applicability of microsaccades to clinical use, since parameters as contrast sensitivity, has been measured monocularly in the clinical attitude.
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spelling doaj-art-3370174022bf4f0cb17c4e39495e24c32025-08-20T03:06:09ZengMDPI AGJournal of Eye Movement Research1995-86922020-08-0113510.16910/jemr.13.5.3Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditionsPeter Essig0Alexander LeubeKatharina RifaiSiegfried WahlInstitute for Ophthalmic Research, Eberhard Karls University TuebingenMicrosaccades are involuntary eye movements occurring naturally during fixation. In this study, microsaccades were investigated under monocularly and binocularly stimulated conditions with respect to their directional distribution and rate signature, that refers to a curve reporting the frequency modulation of microsaccades over time. For monocular stimulation the left eye was covered by an infrared filter. In both stimulation conditions, participants fixated a Gabor patch presented randomly in orientation of 45° or 135° over a wide range of spatial frequencies appearing in the center of a monitor. Considering the microsaccadic directions, this study showed microsaccades to be preferably horizontally oriented in their mean direction, regardless of the spatial characteristics of the grating. Furthermore, this outcome was found to be consistent between both stimulation conditions. Moreover, this study found that the microsaccadic rate signature curve correlates between both stimulation conditions, while the curve given for binocular stimulation was already proposed as a tool for estimation of visual performance in the past. Therefore, this study extends the applicability of microsaccades to clinical use, since parameters as contrast sensitivity, has been measured monocularly in the clinical attitude.https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/6691Eye movementsMicrosaccadesFixationVisual performance
spellingShingle Peter Essig
Alexander Leube
Katharina Rifai
Siegfried Wahl
Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
Journal of Eye Movement Research
Eye movements
Microsaccades
Fixation
Visual performance
title Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
title_full Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
title_fullStr Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
title_full_unstemmed Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
title_short Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
title_sort microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
topic Eye movements
Microsaccades
Fixation
Visual performance
url https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/6691
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AT alexanderleube microsaccadicratesignaturescorrelateundermonocularandbinocularstimulationconditions
AT katharinarifai microsaccadicratesignaturescorrelateundermonocularandbinocularstimulationconditions
AT siegfriedwahl microsaccadicratesignaturescorrelateundermonocularandbinocularstimulationconditions