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Related Experiment Video

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VisualEyes: A Modular Software System for Oculomotor Experimentation
10:41

VisualEyes: A Modular Software System for Oculomotor Experimentation

Published on: March 25, 2011

Volition and eye movements.

Parashkev Nachev1, Masud Husain, Christopher Kennard

  • 1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Imperial College London, and Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, London, UK. p.nachev@imperial.ac.uk

Progress in Brain Research
|August 23, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study introduces a novel oculomotor task to investigate the neural basis of voluntary action. By observing interference in an automatic task, researchers can better understand free choice and volition.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Motor Control

Background:

  • The neural underpinnings of voluntary action versus automatic processes remain unclear.
  • Previous methods for studying volition are confounded by complex condition-action associations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a new task to isolate and study the neural basis of volition.
  • To circumvent confounds inherent in previous experimental designs for studying voluntary action.

Main Methods:

  • Adaptation of a classic oculomotor task: saccadic choice with asynchronous targets.
  • Observing interference in an automatic task as a manifestation of voluntary processes (free choice).

Main Results:

  • The proposed task allows voluntary processes to manifest as interference in automatic task performance.
  • This method bypasses difficulties in parameterizing volition and isolating voluntary actions.

Conclusions:

  • The adapted oculomotor task offers a viable method for probing volition.
  • This task may be valuable for identifying deficits in voluntary action in pathological conditions.