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Related Experiment Videos

Express saccades elicited during visual scan in the monkey

M A Sommer1

  • 1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139.

Vision Research
|August 1, 1994
PubMed
Summary

Monkeys exhibit distinct "express" and "regular" saccadic (eye movement) response times during natural visual scanning. These distinct saccade modes, mediated by the superior colliculus, emerge rapidly with training.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Ophthalmology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Monkeys trained for visual target saccades show distinct saccadic latency modes.
  • Previous studies focused on simple target presentation, not naturalistic visual scanning.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate if express and regular saccadic modes occur during natural visual scanning with sudden target presentation.
  • Determine the conditions influencing these saccadic modes in a structured visual field.

Main Methods:

  • Monkeys were trained to perform saccades to visual targets within a structured visual field.
  • Saccadic latencies were analyzed during visual scanning and target-directed eye movements.

Main Results:

  • Scanning saccades ceased 60ms post-target onset; subsequent target-directed saccades showed bimodal latency distributions.
  • Express saccades correlated with later target presentation within a fixation; regular saccades with longer target durations.
  • Scanning saccades to background stimuli consistently exhibited unimodal inter-saccadic intervals.

Conclusions:

  • Bimodal saccadic latency distributions emerge during naturalistic visual scanning after brief training (2-3 days).
  • Findings suggest superior colliculus visuomotor cells play a role in mediating saccadic latency bimodality.
  • The study provides insights into the neural mechanisms of visually guided eye movements in complex environments.

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