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How the visual system prevents the world from fading
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Ciencia Al Dia Internacional
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2000-12
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v3n3a4v5.pdf
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Abstract
Our visual system contains a built-in contradiction: when we
fixate our gaze on an object of interest, our eyes are never still.
Instead we produce, several times each second, small eye
movements of which we are unaware, called “microsaccades”.
Amazingly, if we eliminate these eye movements in the laboratory,
our visual perception fades. By knowing the brain activity that occurs
as result of a microsaccade, we can know the type of activity that is
important for keeping objects visible. To address this, we trained
macaque monkeys to fixate their eyes on a small spot and we
correlated their neuronal activity with their eye movements. We
learned that microsaccades increase the activity of neurons in the
primary visual cortex (area V1). This increased activity tends to occur
in clumps, also called “bursts”. Bursts of neuronal impulses would
seem to be the type of activity most effective in sustaining a visible
image.
Citation
Martinez-Conde, S, Macknik, SL & Hubel, DH (2000) Microsaccadic Eye Movements and Firing of Single Cells in the Striate Cortex of Macaque Monkeys. Nature Neuroscience Vol. 3(3), pp. 251-258.