Influence of Head and Eye Movements on Visual Input Statistics and Early Neural Representations

我们通常没有意识到我们的眼睛和头部一直在运动。然而，即使我们试图将目光固定在场景中的一个点上，也会不断地无意识地进行头部和眼球的小运动。人们早就知道，由这些运动产生的时间调节对视觉至关重要：世界变得越来越模糊，最终当头部和眼睛不活动时，世界会完全消失。然而，注视运动对视觉的具体影响机制尚不清楚。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的资助下，鲁奇博士和他在波士顿大学（Boston University）的团队将测量人类观察者的微观头部和眼球运动，并重建进入他们眼睛的输入信号。研究人员将利用这些数据量化观察者的动作对感觉信息流的影响，并检查在执行不同的视觉活动时这种信息流是如何变化的。本研究将探讨注视运动对大脑视觉信息加工和稳定视觉知觉建立的作用机制。阐明注视运动的影响对于提高我们对视觉系统如何运作以及如何制造复制人类视觉能力的机器的认识至关重要。此外，在各种病理条件下，眼球固定运动也会发生异常。对注视性眼球运动功能的透彻理解可能有助于治疗与此类疾病相关的视觉障碍。

We are normally not aware that our eyes and head are always in motion. Yet small, involuntary head and eye movements continually occur, even when we attempt to keep our gaze fixed on a point in the scene. It has long been known that the temporal modulations resulting from these movements are essential for seeing: the world becomes progressively fainter and will eventually fade altogether when the head and eyes are immobilized. However, the specific mechanisms by which fixational movements contribute to vision remain unknown. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Rucci and his team at Boston University will measure microscopic head and eye movements in human observers and reconstruct the input signals entering their eyes. The investigators will then use these data to quantify the impact of the observer's actions on the sensory flow of information and examine how this flow changes during the execution of different visual activities.This research will investigate the mechanisms by which fixational movements contribute to the processing of visual information in the brain and the establishment of a stable visual percept. Elucidating the impact of fixational movements is critical to advancing our knowledge of how the visual system functions and how to build machines which replicate human visual capabilities. Furthermore, abnormal fixational eye movementsoccur in various pathological conditions. A thorough understanding of the functions of fixational eye movements may lead to treatment of the visual impairments associated with such conditions.