Memory-guided microsaccades

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 3710 - 14
• Main Authors: Willeke, Konstantin F., Tian, Xiaoguang, Buonocore, Antimo, Bellet, Joachim, Ramirez-Cardenas, Araceli, Hafed, Ziad M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.08.2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/378/1595/1636; 631/378/1595/3922; 631/378/2617/1795; 631/378/2617/1832; 631/378/3920; 9/30; Acuity; Adult; Animals; Eye; Eye movements; Female; Human subjects; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Macaca mulatta; Male; Memory; Memory, Short-Term; Mesencephalon; Monkeys; multidisciplinary; Neural Pathways; Neurons - physiology; Saccades - physiology; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spatial Memory - physiology; Superior Colliculi - cytology; Superior Colliculi - physiology; Superior colliculus; Visual observation; Visual stimuli; Young Adult

Despite strong evidence to the contrary in the literature, microsaccades are overwhelmingly described as involuntary eye movements. Here we show in both human subjects and monkeys that individual microsaccades of any direction can easily be triggered: (1) on demand, based on an arbitrary instruction...