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Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been widely used for the detection of anxiety because of its ability to reflect the functional activities of the brain. However, EEG alone may not provide precision in the detection of anxiety because other emotional disorders usually trigger the same changes in brain function. To discover effective diagnostic indicators and to achieve more precise anxiety detection, we integrate eye movement information into EEG and divide the features into groups according to their respective characteristics. We use group sparse canonical correlation analysis (GSCCA) to investigate group structure information among EEG and eye movement features and obtain an effective fusion representation of EEG and eye movement to achieve more precise detection of anxiety mood. Experimental results from 45 anxious subjects and 47 normal controls showed that GSCCA could be effectively used to explore the correlation between EEG features within different scalp regions and eye movement features from several aspects. Visual behaviors, including saccades and fixation, are more linearly related to the power spectrum of EEG on the scalp area corresponding to the visual region of the brain. The ultimate fusion representation achieved an optimal classification accuracy of 82.70% with SVM on the gamma band of EEG.

Purpose: To determine the best treatment for dissociated vertical deviation (DVD). Methods: The authors investigated the postoperative results of unilateral surgery for DVD in 14 patients when the visual acuity difference between the two eyes did not result in a postoperative dominance switch. All patients underwent bilateral medial rectus recession for congenital esotropia. Results: With this unilateral surgical procedure, all patients showed a significant improvement of the DVD in the primary position. None of the patients developed hypotropia, anti-elevation syndrome, or inferior oblique overaction in the contralateral (dominant) eye, and no changes were observed in the contralateral eye. Conclusions: Unilateral surgery for DVD in the non-dominant eye in case of strong fixation preference does not create a postoperative manifest DVD in the unoperated dominant eye. [ J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus . 2022;59(1):60–64.]

PURPOSE To evaluate the effectiveness of the visual habilitation program in improving the visual functions of visually impaired children under 3 years old. METHODS Case records of children with visual impairment (VI) who had at least 1 follow-up visit, were reviewed. Children's visual functions were scored between 0 and 15 based on mainly fixation and following skills. Differences in patients' visual function score (VFS) between the time of the presentation and the last follow-up visit were recorded. RESULTS 130 children with VI (63 male and 67 female) were identified. The mean age at the presentation was 13.94±9.23 months and the mean follow-up was 12.79±9.4 months. Forty of the patients had ocular, 70 of them had cerebral and 20 of them had combined VI. Correlations were found between the age of the patients at the presentation and the initial VFS; and gestational age and the initial VFS (p˂0.001, r=0.332; p˂0.05, r=0.262, respectively). Vision improvement was noted in ocular, cerebral, and combined VI groups. No significant difference among the groups was found (p=0.430). There was a significant difference between the change in the VFSs of those who attended the special education and rehabilitation center regularly for 2 hours a week and had regular visual stimulation for 8-10 sessions every day at home and those who did not go to the center and did not receive any visual stimulation by their parents at home (p˂0.001). CONCLUSIONS The visual functions of visually impaired children can be improved by habilitation, which includes visual stimulation programs.

The influence of internal brain state on behavioral performance is well illustrated by the gap-saccade task, in which saccades might be initiated with short latency (express saccade) or with long latency (regular saccade) even though the external visual condition is identical. Accumulated evidence has demonstrated that the internal brain state is different before the initiation of an express saccade than of a regular saccade. However, the reported origin of the fluctuation of internal brain state is disputed among previous studies, e.g., the fixation disengagement theory versus the oculomotor preparation theory. In the present study, we examined these two theories by analyzing the rate and direction of fixational saccades, i.e., small amplitude saccades during fixation period, because they could be modulated by internal brain state. Since fixation disengagement is not spatially tuned, it might affect the rate but not direction of fixational saccade. In contrast, oculomotor preparation can contain the spatial information for upcoming saccade, thus, it might have a distinct effect on fixational saccade direction. We found that the different spatiotemporal characteristics of fixational saccades among tasks with different gap durations reveals different driven force to change the internal brain state. Under short gap duration (100 ms), fixation disengagement plays a primary role in switching internal brain state. Conversely, under medium (200 ms) and long (400 ms) gap durations, oculomotor preparation plays a primary role. These results suggest that both fixation disengagement and oculomotor preparation can change the internal brain state, but their relative contributions are gap-duration dependent.

Atypical motor coordination and cognitive processes, such as response inhibition and working memory, have been extensively researched in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Oculomotor neural circuits overlap extensively with regions involved in motor planning and cognition, therefore studies of oculomotor function may offer unique insights into motor and cognitive control in ADHD. We performed a series of pairwise meta-analyses based on data from 26 oculomotor studies in ADHD to examine whether there were differences in performance on visually-guided saccade, gap, antisaccade, memory-guided, pursuit eye movements and fixation tasks. These analyses revealed oculomotor disturbances in ADHD, particularly for difficulties relating to saccade inhibition, memorizing visual target locations and initiating antisaccades. There was no evidence for pursuit eye movement disturbances or saccade dysmetria. Investigating oculomotor abnormalities in ADHD may provide insight into top-down cognitive control processes and motor control, and may serve as a promising biomarker in ADHD research and clinical practice.

When reaching to grasp previously seen, now out-of-view objects, we rely on stored perceptual representations to guide our actions, likely encoded by the ventral visual stream. So-called memory-guided actions are numerous in daily life, for instance, as we reach to grasp a coffee cup hidden behind our morning newspaper. Little research has examined obstacle avoidance during memory-guided grasping, though it is possible obstacles with increased perceptual salience will provoke exacerbated avoidance maneuvers, like exaggerated deviations in eye and hand position away from obtrusive obstacles. We examined the obstacle avoidance strategies adopted as subjects reached to grasp a 3D target object under visually-guided (closed loop or open loop with full vision prior to movement onset) and memory-guided (short- or long-delay) conditions. On any given trial, subjects reached between a pair of flanker obstacles to grasp a target object. The positions and widths of the obstacles were manipulated, though their inner edges remained a constant distance apart. While reach and grasp behavior was consistent with the obstacle avoidance literature, in that reach, grasp, and gaze positions were biased away from obstacles most obtrusive to the reaching hand, our results reveal distinctive avoidance approaches undertaken depend on the availability of visual feedback. Contrary to expectation, we found subjects reaching to grasp after a long delay in the absence of visual feedback failed to modify their final fixation and grasp positions to accommodate the different positions of obstacles, demonstrating a more moderate, rather than exaggerative, obstacle avoidance strategy.

Recent evidence suggests that visual attention alternately samples two behaviourally relevant objects at approximately 4 Hz, rhythmically shifting between the objects. Whether similar attentional rhythms exist in other sensory modalities, however, is not yet clear. We therefore adapted and extended an established paradigm to investigate visual and potential auditory attentional rhythms, as well as possible interactions, on both a behavioural (detection performance, N = 33) and a neural level (EEG, N = 18). The results during unimodal attention demonstrate that both visual- and auditory-target detection fluctuate at frequencies of approximately 4-8 Hz, confirming that attentional rhythms are not specific to visual processing. The EEG recordings provided evidence of oscillatory activity that underlies these behavioural effects. At right and left occipital EEG electrodes, we detected counter-phasic theta-band activity (4-8 Hz), mirroring behavioural evidence of alternating sampling between the objects presented right and left of central fixation, respectively. Similarly, alpha-band activity as a signature of relatively suppressed sensory encoding showed a theta-rhythmic, counter-phasic change in power. Moreover, these theta-rhythmic changes in alpha power were predictive of behavioural performance in both sensory modalities. Overall, the present findings provide a new perspective on the multimodal rhythmicity of attention.

Not all websites have fulfilled basic principles such as accessible and easy to use (usable). There are several measuring methods that already exist. In this research, the measurement is done by combining 2 measuring methods namely usability testing and eye tracking because the measurement is done with props that are eye tracking, so that at the same time we can measure the indicator usability testing and eye tracking metrics. So researchers to know the level of relationship or correlation between usability testing indicators and eye tracking metrics. The type of research conducted is a type of associative research with quantitative and qualitative approaches. Where both of these methods will result in quantitative data such as time on task, difficulty ratings, fixation duration mean and time to first fixation. Qualitative Data is obtained from playing the recorded results and conducting interviews to examine the results of eye movements when testing is the same as the opinions or perceptions of each participant. Results of a correlation test Pearson product moment acquired correlation or relationship between time on task with fixation duration mean, time on task with time to first fixation, difficulty ratings with fixation duration mean, difficulty ratings with time to First fixation. There are two possibilities of usability measurement performance indicators with eye tracking proving a significant correlation means measurement of usability using eye tracking can be used as an alternative in doing more usability measurement Accurate with significance levels > 2.048 in subsequent studies.

What is the effect of prior experience on sensorimotor behavior? We studied the following intriguing behavior: monkeys fixating a small target direct their gaze above the target if the background is dark. Fixating a target once on a bright background, then on a dark background, yields 2 gaze directions, typically one above the other; hence the name, ‘dark-background-contingent upshift of gaze', which is abbreviated as ‘upshift’. Is the upshift only an attempt to avoid using the fovea in the dark? If it is, we might expect to also observe a downshift and a sideshift. We studied gaze direction in a large group of 10 rhesus monkeys from Tubingen, to which we added published data from 4 cynomolgus monkeys from Rehovot. The upshift was ubiquitous, and there was no systematic sideshift. What is the function of the upshift? Is it related to vision in the dark? Here, we concentrate on the effect of the monkeys’ previous training. Seven of the 14 monkeys were accustomed to working in the dark (‘dark-habituated’), while the other 7 had worked in bright ambient light (‘bright-habituated’). The main result of this study is that the dark-habituated monkeys had a much larger upshift: the mean upshift was 2.2° in the dark-habituated monkeys, versus 0.5° in the bright-habituated. Thus, the upshift depends on habituation; the size of the upshift reflects months-long cumulative experience. These findings suggest that the function of the upshift is indeed related to seeing in the dark.

The key to the diagnosis of ocular motor disorders is a systematic clinical examination of the different types of eye movements, including eye position, spontaneous nystagmus, range of eye movements, smooth pursuit, saccades, gaze-holding function, vergence, optokinetic nystagmus, as well as testing of the function of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and visual fixation suppression of the VOR. This is like a window which allows you to look into the brain stem and cerebellum even if imaging is normal. Relevant anatomical structures are the midbrain, pons, medulla, cerebellum and rarely the cortex. There is a simple clinical rule: vertical and torsional eye movements are generated in the midbrain, horizontal eye movements in the pons. For example, isolated dysfunction of vertical eye movements is due to a midbrain lesion affecting the rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (riMLF), with impaired vertical saccades only or vertical gaze-evoked nystagmus due to dysfunction of the Interstitial nucleus of Cajal (INC). Lesions of the lateral medulla oblongata (Wallenberg syndrome) lead to typical findings: ocular tilt reaction, central fixation nystagmus and dysmetric saccades. The cerebellum is relevant for almost all types of eye movements; typical pathological findings are saccadic smooth pursuit, gaze-evoked nystagmus or dysmetric saccades. The time course of the development of symptoms and signs is important for the diagnosis of underlying diseases: acute: most likely stroke; subacute: inflammatory diseases, metabolic diseases like thiamine deficiencies; chronic progressive: inherited diseases like Niemann-Pick type C with typically initially vertical and then horizontal saccade palsy or degenerative diseases like progressive supranuclear palsy. Treatment depends on the underlying disease. In this article, we deal with central ocular motor disorders. In a second article, we focus on clinically relevant types of nystagmus such as downbeat, upbeat, fixation pendular, gaze-evoked, infantile or periodic alternating nystagmus. Therefore, these types of nystagmus will not be described here in detail.Der Schlüssel zur Diagnose von Augenbewegungsstörungen ist eine systematische klinische Untersuchung aller Arten von Augenbewegungen. Diese ist wie ein Fenster in Hirnstamm und Kleinhirn, selbst wenn die Bildgebung unauffällig ist. Die Untersuchung umfasst die folgenden Aspekte: Augenposition, Untersuchung auf einen Spontannystagmus, Motilität, Blickfolge, Blickhaltefunktion, Sakkaden, Vergenzreaktion, optokinetischer Nystagmus, Funktion des vestibulookulären Reflexes (VOR) sowie die Fixationssuppression des VOR. Anatomisch relevante Strukturen sind Mesenzephalon, Pons, Medulla oblongata, Zerebellum und sehr selten der Kortex. Topografisch-anatomisch gelten die folgenden einfachen klinischen Regeln: vertikale und torsionelle Augenbewegungen werden vorwiegend im Mesenzephalon (relevante Strukturen sind der rostrale interstitielle Kern des Fasciculus longitudinalis medialis und der interstitielle Nucleus Cajal) und horizontale Augenbewegungen im Pons (relevante Struktur ist z. B. die paramediane pontine Formatio reticularis) generiert. Somit finden sich z. B. bei Mittelhirnläsionen eine vertikale Sakkaden- oder Blickparese und ein isolierter vertikaler Blickrichtungsnystagmus und bei Läsionen im Bereich des Pons entsprechende horizontale Störungen sowie eine internukleäre Ophthalmoplegie. Läsionen der lateralen Medulla oblongata (Wallenberg-Syndrom) führen zu typischen Befunden mit Ocular Tilt Reaction, Fixationsnystagmus und Sakkadendysmetrie. Das Zerebellum spielt eine Rolle bei praktisch allen Augenbewegungen; typische klinische Zeichen sind eine allseitige Blickfolgesakkadierung, Blickrichtungsnystagmus oder dysmetrische Sakkaden. Wichtig für die Beurteilung der zugrunde liegenden Erkrankungen ist der Verlauf: akut bei Infarkten, subakut bei entzündlichen Erkrankungen, Thiaminmangel oder unerwünschter Medikamentenwirkung sowie chronisch progredient bei hereditären Erkrankungen wie Niemann-Pick Typ C mit typischer, zunächst vertikaler und dann horizontaler Sakkadenparese oder neurodegenerativen Erkrankungen wie der progressiven supranukleären Blickparese. Die Behandlung hängt von der zugrunde liegenden Erkrankung ab. Abschließend: in einem begleitenden Artikel werden in dieser Zeitschrift die häufigsten und klinisch relevanten Nystagmusformen wie z. B. Downbeat-, Upbeat-, Fixationspendelnystagmus, infantiler oder periodisch-alternierender Nystagmus und deren klinische Untersuchung dargestellt, sodass auf diese hier nicht detailliert eingegangen wird, wobei es bewusst Überlappungen gibt.

Most text on modern electronic displays is set in fonts of regular letter width. Little is known about whether this is the optimal font width for letter recognition. We tested three variants of the font family Helvetica Neue (Condensed, Standard, and Extended). We ran two separate experiments at different distances and different retinal locations. In Experiment 1, the stimuli were presented in the parafovea at 2° eccentricity; in Experiment 2, the stimuli were presented in the periphery at 9° eccentricity. In both experiments, we employed a short-exposure single-report trigram paradigm in which a string of three letters was presented left or right off-centre. Participants were instructed to report the middle letter while maintaining fixation on the fixation cross. Wider fonts resulted in better recognition and fewer misreadings for neighbouring letters than narrower fonts, which demonstrated that wider letter shapes improve recognition at glance reading in the peripheral visual view. Practitioner summary: Most of the text is set in fonts of regular letter width. In two single-target trigram letter recognition experiments, we showed that wider letter shapes facilitate better recognition than narrower letter shapes. This indicates that when letter identification is a priority, it is beneficial to choose fonts of wider letter shapes.

Background Identifying dangerous causes of dizziness is a challenging task for neurologists, as it requires interpretation of subtle bedside exam findings, which become even more subtle with time. Nystagmus can be instrumental in differentiating peripheral from central vestibular disorders. Conventional teaching is that peripheral vestibular nystagmus is accentuated by removal of visual fixation. We sought to systematically test the hypothesis that, in some cases, vertical nystagmus due to central vestibular disorders may also be easier to identify when fixation is removed. Methods To identify patients with vertical nystagmus, we retrospectively reviewed clinical, MRI, and VNG data of consecutive patients undergoing VNG in our vestibular clinic over a 9-month period. We analyzed clinical features, bedside neuro-otological examination, MRI results, and VNG findings in fixation as well as those with fixation removed. Results Two hundred and fourteen charts were reviewed. Twenty-six patients had vertical nystagmus with fixation removed on VNG. Only three (11.5%) of these patients had vertical nystagmus apparent with fixation (and only two had nystagmus observed clearly at the bedside with the unaided eye). Thirteen (50%) of the patients had posterior fossa lesions on MRI and eight of the rest (30.8%) were diagnosed with central vestibular disorders. Of the 13 patients with MRI-confirmed lesions, 3 patients (23.1%) had no neurological signs or conventional bedside oculomotor signs; in these cases, vertical nystagmus without fixation was the only sign of a central lesion. Conclusions Our findings go against conventional teaching and show that removing fixation can uncover subtle vertical nystagmus due to central vestibular disease, particularly from focal or chronic lesions.

BACKGROUND: The Gaze Stabilization Test (GST) identifies vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) dysfunction using a decline in target recognition with increasing head velocity, but there is no consensus on target (optotype) size above static visual acuity. OBJECTIVE: To determine the optimal optotype size above static visual acuity to be used during the GST in subjects with unilateral vestibular dysfunction and healthy individuals. METHODS: Eight subjects with unilateral vestibular dysfunction (UVD) and 19 age-matched, healthy control subjects were studied with the standard GST protocol using two optotype sizes, 0.2 and 0.3 logMAR above static visual acuity (ΔlogMAR). Maximal head velocity achieved while maintaining fixation on both optotypes was measured. Sensitivity, specificity and receiver-operator characteristic area under the curve (ROC AUC) analyses were performed to determine the optimal head velocity cut off point for each optotype, based on ability to identify the lesioned side of the UVD group from the control group. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in maximal head velocity between the UVD group and control group using 0.2 ΔlogMAR (p = 0.032) but not 0.3 ΔlogMAR (p = 0.061). While both targets produced similar specificities (90%) for distinguishing normal from subjects with UVD, 0.2 ΔlogMAR targets yielded higher sensitivity (75%) than 0.3 logMAR (63%) and accuracy (86% vs 80%, respectively) in detecting the lesioned side in subjects with UVD versus controls with maximal head velocities≤105 deg/s (p = 0.017). Furthermore, positive likelihood ratios were nearly twice as high when using 0.2 ΔlogMAR targets (+ LR 10) compared to 0.3 ΔlogMAR (+ LR 6.3). CONCLUSION: The 0.2 ΔlogMAR optotype demonstrated significantly superior identification of subjects with UVD, better sensitivity and positive likelihood ratios than 0.3 ΔlogMAR for detection of VOR dysfunction. Using a target size 0.2logMAR above static visual acuity (ΔlogMAR) during GST may yield better detection of VOR dysfunction to serve as a baseline for gaze stabilization rehabilitation therapy.

PURPOSE To compare the clinical utilities of the SITA-based central 24-2 and 30-2 threshold tests. METHODS Three hundred sixty-five (365) eyes of 183 glaucoma and glaucoma suspect patients who had undergone both central 30-2 and 24-2 threshold testing using the Swedish interactive threshold algorithm (SITA) standard strategy were retrospectively reviewed. The tests were performed in patients with a minimum visual acuity of LogMAR best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) 0.3. We compared test time, fixation loss (%), false-positive error rate (%), and false-negative error rate (%), all of which are indices of reliability. We additionally compared the mean deviation (MD), pattern standard deviation (PSD), and visual field index (VFI), all of which are indices of the visual field test. RESULTS The mean age was 54.67 ± 14.95. MD, VFI, and fixation loss showed no significant difference between the 30-2 and 24-2 tests. As expected, 24-2 was shorter in duration: 5.64 ± 1.09 min versus 7.51 ± 1.38 min (p

In human-machine interaction systems, continuous movement estimation methods occupy an important position because they are more natural and intuitive than pattern-recognition methods. Essentially, arm position is decided by the shoulder and elbow joint angles. However, the various deformations of muscles around the shoulder and elbow often lead to difficulties in sensor fixation, which results in a loss of synchronization between the surface electromyography (sEMG) signals and joint angles. In order to accurately estimate movement angles using sEMG in situations where the sEMG is not synchronized with joint angles, we utilized a bi-directional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) network rather than other deep learning methods to estimate non-dominant arm movements, based on the sEMG signal from the dominant arm. This estimation protocol was designed to avoid a multiplicity of sensors and to simulate more complicated loss of synchronization problems). The performance of the Bi-LSTM was compared with multilayer perceptrons (MLPs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and a long short-term memory network (LSTM). The Pearson correlation coefficient (cc) between the estimated and target joint angle sequences was calculated to evaluate the performance of each neural network. The Wilcoxon signed-rank results showed that the Bi-LSTM model significantly outperformed the MLP, CNN, and LSTM models (tested with completely untrained newly recorded free movements).

Children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with atypical gaze patterns to others' faces, a finding substantiated throughout the literature. Yet, a quantification of atypical gaze patterns to different facial regions (e.g., eyes versus mouth) in ASD remains controversial. Also few study has investigated how age and culture impacted the pattern of gaze abnormalities in ASD. This research therefore conducted a meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies to evaluate age and culture effect on atypical gaze patterns of face processing in ASD. A total of 75 articles (91 studies) and 4209 individuals (ASD: 2027; controls: 2182) across all age ranges (i.e., childhood through to adulthood) from both Eastern and Western cultures were included in this meta-analysis. Individuals with ASD yielded shorter fixation durations to the eyes than individuals without ASD. Group differences in the time spent fixating on the eyes were not modulated by age, but affected by culture. Effect size in the eastern culture was larger than that in the western culture. In contrast, group differences on time spent looking at the mouth were not significant, but changed with age and modulated by culture. Relative to the neurotypical controls, Western individuals with ASD spent more time looking at the mouth from school age, whereas Eastern individuals with ASD did not gaze longer on mouth until adulthood. These results add to the body of evidence supporting atypical gaze behaviors to eyes in ASD and provide new insights into a potential mouth compensation strategy that develops with age in ASD. LAY SUMMARY: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show atypical gaze patterns when looking at others' faces compared to neurotypical individuals. This paper examines the role of age and culture on pattern of gaze abnormalities in individuals with ASD. Results show that reduction of gaze on eyes in ASD is stable across all ages and cultures, while increase of gaze on mouth emerges as individuals with ASD get older. The findings provide a developmental insight to the gaze patterns on the autism spectrum across culture.

Social interactions often require the simultaneous processing of emotions from facial expressions and speech. However, the development of the gaze behavior used for emotion recognition, and the effects of speech perception on the visual encoding of facial expressions is less understood. We therefore conducted a word-primed face categorization experiment, where participants from multiple age groups (six-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults) categorized target facial expressions as positive or negative after priming with valence-congruent or -incongruent auditory emotion words, or no words at all. We recorded our participants’ gaze behavior during this task using an eye-tracker, and analyzed the data with respect to the fixation time toward the eyes and mouth regions of faces, as well as the time until participants made the first fixation within those regions (time to first fixation, TTFF). We found that the six-year-olds showed significantly higher accuracy in categorizing congruently primed faces compared to the other conditions. The six-year-olds also showed faster response times, shorter total fixation durations, and faster TTFF measures in all primed trials, regardless of congruency, as compared to unprimed trials. We also found that while adults looked first, and longer, at the eyes as compared to the mouth regions of target faces, children did not exhibit this gaze behavior. Our results thus indicate that young children are more sensitive than adults or older children to auditory emotion word primes during the perception of emotional faces, and that the distribution of gaze across the regions of the face changes significantly from childhood to adulthood.

In healthy vision, the fovea provides high acuity and serves as the locus for fixation achieved through saccadic eye movements. Bilateral loss of the foveal regions in both eyes causes individuals to adopt an eccentric locus for fixation. This review deals with the eye movement consequences of the loss of the foveal oculomotor reference and the ability of individuals to use an eccentric fixation locus as the new oculomotor reference. Eye movements are an integral part of everyday activities, such as reading, searching for an item of interest, eye–hand coordination, navigation, or tracking an approaching car. We consider how these tasks are impacted by the need to use an eccentric locus for fixation and as a reference for eye movements, specifically saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements.

PURPOSE: Dynamic text presentation methods may improve reading ability in patients with central vision loss (CVL) by eliminating the need for accurate eye movements. We compared rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and horizontal scrolling text presentation (scrolling) on reading rate and reading acuity in CVL observers and normally-sighted controls with simulated CVL (simCVL). METHODS: CVL observers’ (n = 11) central scotomas and preferred retinal loci (PRL) for each eye were determined with MAIA microperimetry and fixation analysis. SimCVL controls (n = 16) used 4° inferior eccentric viewing, enforced with an Eyelink eye-tracker. Observers read aloud 4-word phrases randomly drawn from the MNREAD sentences. Six font sizes (0.50–1.30 logMAR) were tested with the better near acuity eye and both eyes of CVL observers. Three font sizes (0.50–1.00 logMAR) were tested binocularly in simCVL controls. Text presentation duration of each word for RSVP or drift speed for scrolling was varied to determine reading rate, defined as 50% of words read correctly. In a subset of CVL observers (n = 7), relationships between PRL eccentricity, reading threshold and rate were explored. RESULTS: SimCVL controls demonstrated significantly faster reading rates for RSVP than scrolling text (p < 0.0001), and there was a significant main effect of font size (p < 0.0001). CVL patients demonstrated no significant differences in binocular reading rate between font sizes (p = 0.12) and text presentation (p = 0.25). Similar results were seen under monocular conditions. Reading acuity for RSVP and scrolling worsened with increasing PRL eccentricity (μ = 4.5°, p = 0.07). RSVP reading rate decreased significantly with increasing eccentricity (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with previous work, reading acuity worsened with increasing PRL eccentricity. RSVP and scrolling text presentations significantly affected reading rate in simCVL, but not in CVL observers, suggesting that simCVL results may not generalise to pathological CVL.

Introduction Visual attention is a crucial mechanism in health messaging and campaign persuasiveness. Little is known about how visual attention may translate into cessation-related outcomes in tobacco public education campaigns. Methods Using the eye-tracking technology, this study investigated the relationships among visual attention, cognitive and affective message responses, and cessation-related outcomes (readiness to quit, intentions to quit, and intentions to seek cessation information). Four different posters from the Every Try Counts (ETC) campaign were used as message stimuli. A total of 80 adult current smokers participated. The associations between their behavioral eye gaze patterns and self-reported message responses and cessation-related outcomes were examined. Results Half of the sample (49.4%) were male, and 46.8% were White—with ages ranging from 18 to 36 years old (M = 21.22, SD = 2.86). Roughly 41% were daily smokers, and 78% had attempted quitting in the previous year. When exposed to campaign ads, only fixation on the FDA logo showed consistent positive relationships with cognitive and affective message responses. Mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of fixation on the FDA logo on quitting and information-seeking intentions mainly through positive affective message responses. Conclusions Visual attention to the FDA logo played an important role in the effects of ETC campaign messages. Implications This study contributes new evidence on the relationship of visual attention, message responses, and ETC campaign outcomes. The current findings suggest that highlighting FDA as a campaign sponsor in the visual display may enhance the effectiveness of FDA tobacco education messages.

The latency of neural responses in the visual cortex changes systematically across the lifespan. Here, we test the hypothesis that development of visual white matter pathways mediates maturational changes in the latency of visual signals. Thirty‐eight children participated in a cross‐sectional study including diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) sessions. During the MEG acquisition, participants performed a lexical decision and a fixation task on words presented at varying levels of contrast and noise. For all stimuli and tasks, early evoked fields were observed around 100 ms after stimulus onset (M100), with slower and lower amplitude responses for low as compared to high contrast stimuli. The optic radiations and optic tracts were identified in each individual's brain based on diffusion MRI tractography. The diffusion properties of the optic radiations predicted M100 responses, especially for high contrast stimuli. Higher optic radiation fractional anisotropy (FA) values were associated with faster and larger M100 responses. Over this developmental window, the M100 responses to high contrast stimuli became faster with age and the optic radiation FA mediated this effect. These findings suggest that the maturation of the optic radiations over childhood accounts for individual variations observed in the developmental trajectory of visual cortex responses., This study elucidates the relationship between structural and functional properties of the visual pathways and how they change during childhood. Developmental changes of visual white matter pathways account for latency variations in electrophysiological responses of visual cortex. The present findings are an example of how relating white matter properties to functional aspects of the brain can help us reach a more complete understanding of the link between development of brain connectivity and changes in electrophysiology.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the elements of wayfinding in indoor complex healthcare environments. Background: The study replicates Ghamari and Pati’s 2018 study to identify the environmental attributes that attract eye fixation during wayfinding by objectively tracking eye movements and fixation as healthy subjects navigate through a complex, unfamiliar indoor healthcare setting. The study addressed what do people look at while navigating in unfamiliar healthcare environments? What are the relative time periods of eye fixations on different visual environmental elements of the healthcare-designed environments? And what role do visual environmental attributes in healthcare facilities, such as configuration, color, art, directories, maps, furniture, and so on, play during the wayfinding process. Method: Twenty-four adults in different genders and various age groups participated in this study and navigated five routes with different degrees of difficulty. The sequence of the destinations in this study was randomized. The data were collected by tracking gaze fixations while human subjects navigated an indoor complex healthcare environment. Results: The findings show that identifying signs (29.1%), informative signs (20.8%), and architectural features (11.3%) constituted the most frequent elements attracting gaze, substantially more than the other classes of information. Four types of signage (identifying signs, informative signs, directional, and safety/regulatory signs) were accounted for 62.3% of the total gaze fixation time. Conclusions: The comparison of the ordered list based on frequencies and time of eye fixations on various elements developed in Ghamari and Pati’s study shows a vast degree of similarities.

Central visual field (VF) progression could directly threaten patientss visual function compared to glaucomatous damage. This study was designed to investigate visual field (VF) progression pattern and associated risk factors including optical coherence topography angiographic (OCT-A) findings in glaucoma patients with initial paracentral scotoma. This prospective, observational study included 122 eyes presenting as initial paracentral scotomas with serial 24-2 and 10-2 VF tests at the glaucoma clinic of Seoul St Mary's Hospital between November 2017 and August 2020. The participants underwent at least 5 serial VF exams and OCT-A at baseline. Numerical values of the initial and final 10-2 VF tests were averaged for each VF test point using the total deviation map. Innermost 10-2 VF progression was defined as three or more new contiguous points at the central 12 points on 10-2 VF. Other clinical characteristics were collected including history of disc hemorrhage and vessel density (VD) was measured from OCT-A images. Linear regression analysis was performed to obtain the change of mean deviation and a cut-off for progression was defined for both 24-2 and 10-2 VFs. The average total deviation maps of the initial 10-2 VF tests shows initial paracentral scotoma located in the superior region in an arcuate pattern that was deep in the 4°–6° region above fixation. This arcuate pattern was more broadly located in the 4°–10° region in the primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) group, while it was closer to fixation in 0°–4° region in the normal-tension glaucoma (NTG) group. The final average map shows deepening of scotomas in the 4°–10° region in POAG, which deepened closer to the region of fixation in NTG. The diagnosis of NTG (β 1.892; 95% CI 1.225–2.516; P = 0.035) and lower choroidal VD in the peripapillary atrophy (PPA) region (β 0.985; 95% CI 0.975 to 0.995; P = 0.022) were significantly related to innermost 10-2 VF progression. Initial paracentral scotomas in NTG tended to progress closer to the region of fixation, which should be monitored closely. Important progression risk factors related to paracentral scotoma near the fixation were the diagnosis of NTG and reduced choroidal VD in the β-zone PPA region using OCT-A. We should consider vascular risk factors in NTG patients presenting with initial paracentral scotoma to avoid vision threatening progression of glaucoma.

Background: Visual cortical prostheses (VCPs) have the potential to restore visual function to patients with acquired blindness. Successful implementation of VCPs requires the ability to reliably map the location of the phosphene produced by stimulation of each implanted electrode. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of different approaches to phosphene mapping and propose simple improvements to mapping strategy. Methods: We stimulated electrodes implanted in the visual cortex of five blind and fifteen sighted patients. We tested two fixation strategies, unimanual fixation, where subjects placed a single index finger on a tactile fixation point and bimanual fixation, where subjects overlaid their right index finger over their left on the tactile point. In addition, we compared absolute mapping in which a single electrode was stimulated on each trial, and relative mapping with sequences containing stimulation of three to five phosphenes on each trial. Trial-to-trial variability present in relative mapping sequences was quantified. Results: Phosphene mapping was less precise in blind subjects than in sighted subjects (2DRMS, 16 ± 2.9° vs. 1.9 ± 0.93°; t (18) = 18, p =

To explore the dynamic process of complex human eye movement behavior, we proposed a new model to simulate human scanpath when subjects observed natural images freely. Previous methods almost focused on finding effective and advanced technology, such as machine learning or deep learning, for estimating human scanpath. In contrast, our proposed method devoted to find a new way that could use the intrinsic property of eye-tracking data between different races to guide the design of a deep network. Inspired by that, the model of human scanpath estimation was established, which based on a semantic segmentation module guided by common eye fixation behaviors between people with different cultures. The semantic segmentation module could deal with locating fixations positions and the fixations ranking problem in parallel and generate human scanpath combined with the output of common attention portions (CAP) generator. The common attention portions (CAP) generator was designed to optimize the performance of semantic segmentation module and extract the common eye fixation behaviors between people with different cultures. We evaluated the performance of our model on three public eye-tracking datasets by comparing the result generated from our model with the ground truth of scanpath produced by a new method in this work. The proposed model also achieved the encouraging performance compared with some classic and fashionable models.

When looking at visual images, the eyes move to the most salient and behaviourally relevant objects. Saliency and semantic information significantly explain where people look. Less is known about the spatiotemporal properties of eye movements (i.e., how people look). We show that three latent variables explain 60% of eye movement dynamics of more than a hundred observers looking at hundreds of different natural images. The first component explaining 30% of variability loads on fixation duration, and it does not relate to image saliency or semantics; it approximates a power-law distribution of gaze steps, an intrinsic dynamic measure, and identifies observers with two viewing styles: static and dynamic. Notably, these viewing styles were also identified when observers look at a blank screen. These results support the importance of endogenous processes such as intrinsic dynamics to explain eye movement spatiotemporal properties., Andrea Zangrossi et al. analyze individual variability in eye movements when healthy participants view images of natural scenes. Their results suggest that eye movement patterns can be summarized by three principle components, and depend more on subjects’ intrinsic characteristics than the visual contents of the scene.

To perform real-world tasks like grasping, the primate brain has to process visual object information so that the grip aperture can be adjusted before contact with the object is made. Previous studies have demonstrated that the posterior subsector of the Anterior Intraparietal area (pAIP) is connected to frontal area 45B, and the anterior subsector of AIP (aAIP) to F5a (Premereur et al., 2015). However, the role of area 45B and F5a in visually-guided object grasping is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the role of area 45B, F5a and F5p in visually-guided grasping. If a neuronal response to an object during passive fixation represents the activation of a motor command related to the preshaping of the hand, such neurons should prefer objects presented within reachable distance. Conversely, neurons encoding a pure visual representation of an object should be less affected by viewing distance. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the majority of neurons in area 45B were object- and viewing distance selective, with a clear preference for the near viewing distance. Area F5a showed much weaker object selectivity compared to 45B, with a similar preference for objects presented at the Near position emerging mainly in the late epoch. Finally, F5p neurons were less object selective and frequently preferred objects presented at the Far position. Therefore, contrary to our expectations, neurons in area 45B – but not F5p neurons – prefer objects presented in peripersonal space.Significance statementThe current experiment provides the first evidence on the neural representation of distance in frontal areas that are active during visually-guided grasping. Area 45B and F5a neurons were object- and distance-selective, and preferred the near viewing distance even for objects with identical retinal size. In area F5p we observed strong visual responses with an unexpected preference for the Far viewing distance, suggesting that the motor-related object representation was still active during the presentation of objects outside reaching distance.

Theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TBS) has become a standard non-invasive technique to induce offline changes in cortical excitability in human volunteers. Yet, TBS suffers from a high variability across subjects. A better knowledge about how TBS affects neural activity in vivo could uncover its mechanisms of action and ultimately allow its mainstream use in basic science and clinical applications. To address this issue, we applied continuous TBS (cTBS, 300 pulses) in awake behaving rhesus monkeys and quantified its after-effects on neuronal recordings and behavior. Guided by anatomical MRI, we recorded single-cell activity in parietal area PFG during passive fixation of real-world objects. Overall, we observed a pronounced, long-lasting and highly reproducible reduction in neuronal excitability after cTBS in individual parietal neurons, with some neurons exhibiting periods of hyperexcitability during the recovery phase. We applied the same stimulation protocol during visually-guided grasping of objects, and observed a significant grasping impairment. These results provide the first experimental evidence on the effects of cTBS on single neurons in awake behaving monkeys.

Central questions in the study of visual word recognition and developmental dyslexia are whether early lexical activation precedes and supports decoding (a dual-stage view) or not (dual-route view), and the locus of deficits in dysfluent reading. The dual-route view predicts early word frequency and length interaction, whereas the dual-stage view predicts word frequency effect to precede the interaction effect. These predictions were tested on eye movements data collected from (n = 152) children aged 9–10 among whom reading dysfluency was overrepresented. In line with the dual-stage view, the results revealed an early word frequency effect in first fixation duration followed by robust word length effect in refixation probability and an interaction of word frequency and word length in summed refixation duration. This progression was advanced in fluent reading to be observable already in first fixation duration. Poor reading fluency was mostly explained by inflated first fixation durations, and to stronger word frequency and length effects in summed refixation duration. This pattern of results suggests deficits in early letter encoding and slowness in serial grapheme-phoneme conversion. In contrast to the widely held belief, the holistic orthographic processing of words seemed to be intact.

The majority of the collisions at grade crossings occurred at flashing-light-controlled grade crossings. Understanding drivers’ behaviors and visual performances in the process of approaching the crossings is the foundation of improving crossing safety. This study aims at utilizing driving simulation and eye tracking systems to investigate the efficacy of improved traffic signs and pavement markings (PSM) at flashing-light-controlled grade crossings. The improved signs and markings were modeled in a driving simulation system and tested with a series of flashing light trigger time (FLTT) ranging from 2 s to 6 s with 1 s interval increment. Foggy conditions and drivers’ genders and vocations were considered in experiment design. Thirty-six fully-licensed drivers between 30 and 48 years participated in the experiment. Several eye-movement and behavioral measures were adopted as reflections of the subjects’ performances, including the first fixation time on signs and signals and distance to stop line, total fixation duration, compliance rate, stop position, average speed at the stop line, maximum deceleration rate and brake response time. Results showed that compared with traditional grade crossings signs and pavement markings, drivers could perceive signs timelier and fixate on the flashing-light signal earlier in PSM, especially in the scenarios of earlier FLTTs. The improvement in fixation performance and sign design contributed to a higher stop compliance rate. Importantly, it was found that drivers would hesitate to decide whether to stop or cross facing with flashing red lights, which is similar to the dilemma zone of roadway intersections. Drivers were more likely to fall into the dilemma zones when FLTT was

SIGNIFICANCE The range of clear and single binocular vision differs between 3D displays and clinical prism vergences, but this difference is unexplained. This difference prevents clinicians from predicting the range of clear and single binocular vision in 3D-viewing patients. In this study, we tested a hypothesis for this difference. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine whether changing fixation target size in 3D viewing significantly affects the vergence ranges and, if so, then to determine whether the target size effect is driven by fusional vergence gain changes, threshold of blur changes, or both. METHODS Twenty-one visually normal adults aged 18 to 28 years viewed 3D images at 40 cm in an electronic stereoscopic. The fixation target, a Maltese cross, moved in depth at 2∆/s by way of changing crossed or uncrossed disparity until blur and diplopia ensued. We used four target sizes: (1) small (width × height, 0.21° × 0.63°), (2) medium (1.43° × 4.3°), (3) large (3.6° × 10.8°), and (4) 3D (size changing congruently with disparity). The effect of target size on responses was tested by mixed ANOVAs. RESULT Mean convergence blurs and breaks increased with target size by 40% (P < .001) and 71% (P < .001), respectively, and in divergence by 33% (P = .03) and 30% (P = .04), respectively. The increases in break magnitude with target size implicate fusional vergence gain change in the size effect. Increasing target size raised the threshold of blur from 1.06 to 1.82 D in convergence and from 0.97 to 1.48 D in divergence (P = .008). CONCLUSIONS Growing fixation target size in 3D viewing increases fusional vergence gain and blur thresholds, which together increase the limits of clear and single binocular vision. Therefore, the clarity of a 3D image depends not only on its disparity but also on the size of the viewed image.

Essential tremor, the most common pathological tremor, is assumed to originate in the central nervous system. It can result in functional disability because the tremors obstruct movement. We have developed a soft exosuit to assist essential tremor patients that provides a comfortable, unobtrusive and soft interface to the human body, and evaluated whether it can constrain joint movement and suppress tremors. We developed a prototype cable-driven exosuit based on three-point fixation that restricts joint motion only when necessary. Tremors were simulated in healthy test subjects using functional electrical stimulation. The experimental results show that the tremor intensity obtained with the exosuit in constrained mode was approximately 62% of that obtained in unconstrained mode. These results show that the cable-driven soft exosuit effectively suppressed joint motion in patients with simulated essential tremor. We also demonstrated that the exosuit could switch between constrained and unconstrained modes.

An automated mobility scooter is expected to provide convenient and safe transportation for users in their living area. However, there is limited research on user comfort compared to that on user safety for the automated driving of mobility scooters. Because the user does not perform driving tasks in automated driving, the visual information from the peripheral environment and visual behavior is expected to closely affect the psychological comfort of the user. This study clarifies the effects of factors related to the automated driving of mobility scooters and the peripheral environment on the visual behavior and psychological comfort of the user. Effects of driving velocity and pedestrian density on the visual behavior and psychophysiological responses of users were investigated via a driving simulator. The results showed that automated driving in an environment with a high pedestrian density can result in a decrease in fixation duration, deactivation of visual processing, sympathetic activation, and feeling of negative emotion. This implies that the assessment of visual behaviors of users is important for the design of automated mobility scooters to improve user comfort.

For millennia, people have used “averted vision” to improve their detection of faint celestial objects, a technique first documented around 325 BCE. Yet, no studies have assessed gaze location during averted vision to determine what pattern best facilitates perception. Here, we characterized averted vision while recording eye-positions of dark-adapted human participants, for the first time. We simulated stars of apparent magnitudes 3.3 and 3.5, matching their brightness to Megrez (the dimmest star in the Big Dipper) and Tau Ceti. Participants indicated whether each star was visible from a series of fixation locations, providing a comprehensive map of detection performance in all directions. Contrary to prior predictions, maximum detection was first achieved at ~8° from the star, much closer to the fovea than expected from rod-cone distributions alone. These findings challenge the assumption of optimal detection at the rod density peak and provide the first systematic assessment of an age-old facet of human vision.

Stimulating the round window membrane via an active actuator of the middle ear implant, named the reverse stimulation, has become an option to help patients with ossicular chain deformity (OCD) to restore hearing. However, there is still no concise description of how OCD affects reverse stimulation considering the overflow characteristics of third windows. In the present study, an impedance model considering the vestibular and cochlear aqueducts was used to investigate the dynamic response of the cochlea to reverse stimulation under OCD. First, a finite-element (FE) model of the middle ear and the ear canal was used to estimate the changes in reverse middle-ear impedance caused by ossicular chain fixation and ossicular chain interruption. Then, the impedance model was used to predict the reverse transfer function, which characterizes the effect of OCD on the dynamic response of the cochlea. The results show that ossicular chain fixation reduces the reverse stimulation's performance. Moreover, the existence of the third windows complicates the effect of ossicular chain fixation on the reverse stimulation and boosts obviously the reverse stimulation's performance at low frequencies. In contrast, regardless of the existence of third windows, ossicular chain interruption enhances the effect of reverse stimulation.

We evaluated the effects of strabismus repair on fixational eye movements (FEMs) and stereopsis recovery in patients with fusion maldevelopment nystagmus (FMN) and patients without nystagmus. Twenty-one patients with strabismus, twelve with FMN and nine without nystagmus, were tested before and after strabismus repair. Eye-movements were recorded during a gaze-holding task under monocular viewing conditions. Fast (fixational saccades and quick phases of nystagmus) and slow (inter-saccadic drifts and slow phases of nystagmus) FEMs and bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA) were analyzed in the viewing and non-viewing eye. Strabismus repair improved the angle of strabismus in subjects with and without FMN, however patients without nystagmus were more likely to have improvement in stereoacuity. The fixational saccade amplitudes and intersaccadic drift velocities in both eyes decreased after strabismus repair in subjects without nystagmus. The slow phase velocities were higher in patients with FMN compared to inter-saccadic drifts in patients without nystagmus. There was no change in the BCEA after surgery in either group. In patients without nystagmus, the improvement of the binocular function (stereopsis), as well as decreased fixational saccade amplitude and intersaccadic drift velocity, could be due, at least partially, to central adaptive mechanisms rendered possible by surgical realignment of the eyes. The absence of improvement in patients with FMN post strabismus repair likely suggests the lack of such adaptive mechanisms in patients with early onset infantile strabismus. Assessment of fixation eye movement characteristics can be a useful tool to predict functional improvement post strabismus repair.

This manuscript presents GazeBase, a large-scale longitudinal dataset containing 12,334 monocular eye-movement recordings captured from 322 college-aged participants. Participants completed a battery of seven tasks in two contiguous sessions during each round of recording, including a – (1) fixation task, (2) horizontal saccade task, (3) random oblique saccade task, (4) reading task, (5/6) free viewing of cinematic video task, and (7) gaze-driven gaming task. Nine rounds of recording were conducted over a 37 month period, with participants in each subsequent round recruited exclusively from prior rounds. All data was collected using an EyeLink 1000 eye tracker at a 1,000 Hz sampling rate, with a calibration and validation protocol performed before each task to ensure data quality. Due to its large number of participants and longitudinal nature, GazeBase is well suited for exploring research hypotheses in eye movement biometrics, along with other applications applying machine learning to eye movement signal analysis. Classification labels produced by the instrument’s real-time parser are provided for a subset of GazeBase, along with pupil area., Measurement(s) eye movement measurement Technology Type(s) eye tracking device Factor Type(s) round • participant Sample Characteristic - Organism Homo sapiens Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14761866

Background Attentional biases are assumed to be a core feature in the etiology and maintenance of clinical anxiety. The present study focuses on initial maintenance of attention to threat, one of three attentional components investigated the least, particularly in child anxiety. Methods Angry and neutral facial expressions were presented in a free-viewing task, while eye-movements were recorded. Participants were N = 96 school-aged children, with n = 50 children with a clinical social anxiety disorder (SAD) and n = 46 healthy control children (HC). Prior to the task, social stress was induced in half of participating children to investigate the impact of increased levels of distress on initial attention allocation. Results The length of first fixation to angry faces in children with SAD neither differed from the length of first fixation to neutral faces nor the length of first fixation to angry faces in HC children. Furthermore, this variable was not affected by a stress induction procedure. However, children with SAD initially fixated longer on faces than HC children. Conclusion Our findings provide evidence for difficulties disengaging attention from faces. This may indicate that attention allocation is determined by the social nature of the stimuli rather than by the specific emotional valence.

Purpose We examined the effect of bite block insertion (BBI) on lingual movements and formant frequencies in corner vowel and diphthong production in a sentence context. Method Twenty young adults produced the corner vowels (/u/, /ɑ/, /æ/, /i/) and the diphthong /ɑɪ/ in sentence contexts before and after BBI. An electromagnetic articulograph measured the movements of the tongue back, middle, and front. Results There were significant decreases in the acoustic vowel articulation index and vowel space area following BBI. The kinematic vowel articulation index decreased significantly for the back and middle of the tongue but not for the front. There were no significant acoustic changes post-BBI for the diphthong, other than a longer transition duration. Diphthong kinematic changes after BBI included smaller movements for the back and middle of the tongue, but not the front. Conclusions BBI led to a smaller acoustic working space for the corner vowels. The adjustments made by the front of the tongue were sufficient to compensate for the BBI perturbation in the diphthong, resulting in unchanged formant trajectories. The back and middle of the tongue were likely biomechanically restricted in their displacement by the fixation of the jaw, whereas the tongue front showed greater movement flexibility.

Objectives Fixation preference testing is widely used to detect amblyopia, particularly in preverbal children. Pattern electroretinogram (pERG) is an electrophysiological test which is a sensitive indicator of macular function. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between fixation preference and macular function on pERG in children with strabismus. Materials and methods The study included 11 children with strabismus. All underwent ophthalmological examination including fixation preference by binocular fixation pattern test, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) assessment, and pERG. Results The mean age of the patients was 10.09±1.18 years. All patients had unilateral fixation. The mean BCVA was 0.85±0.17 in preferred and 0.48±0.19 in non-preferred eyes (p=0.003). The mean p50 amplitude was 6.07±2.06 μV in preferred and 5.29±2.20 μV in non-preferred eyes (p=0.203), and the mean N95 amplitude was 8.27±2.86 μV and 8.03±3.24 μV respectively (p=0.594). BCVA was correlated with p50 and N95 amplitudes in the non-preferred eyes (p=0.023 and p=0.014). Interocular BCVA difference was correlated with interocular P50 amplitude difference (r=0.688, p=0.019). Conclusion Although amblyopia is typically considered a cortical phenomenon, future larger studies are needed to investigate the relationship between fixation preference and macular electrophysiological function.

Tingting Yang,1,* Dandan Li,1– 3,* Yifan Zhang,1 Long Zhang,2,3 Hong Li,4 Gong-Jun Ji,1– 3 Zhenhai Yang,5 Lei Zhang,1,3 Chunyan Zhu,1,3,* Kai Wang1– 3,6 1School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People’s Republic of China; 3Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, 230022, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Neurological Rehabilitation of Children, Anhui Provincial Children’s Hospital, Hefei, 230022, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Rehabilitation therapy, The First Clinical Medical College of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, People’s Republic of China; 6Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230022, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Lei Zhang; Chunyan ZhuSchool of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail zhanglei17236@aliyun.com; ayswallow@126.comObjective: Previous research found that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was characterized by eye avoidance of threatening facial expressions. However, it still remains unclear as to whether these abnormalities are present in parents of children with ASD. Our study aimed to investigate the gaze patterns of parents of children with ASD in the threatening facial expressions.Methods: Thirty-four parents of children with ASD and 35 parents of typically developing (TD) children participated in our study. We investigated the total fixation time of participants when they viewed different facial expression (eg, happy, fearful, angry, sad) videos and examined changes in the fixation duration over time.Results: We observed the following: a) the total fixation time of the parents of children with ASD on the eyes of fearful faces was significantly shorter than that of the normal group, and the difference lasted for five seconds (four to six seconds, eight to nine seconds) throughout the process; and b) The parents of children with ASD avoided the eyes of angry expression faces at around five seconds after the stimulus onset.Conclusion: We concluded that parents of children with ASD tended to avoid the eyes of threatening expression faces while viewing the dynamic emotions video.Keywords: parents of children with ASD, total fixation time, threatening facial expressions

Age-related differences in visual search have been extensively studied using simple item arrays, showing an attentional decline. Little is known about how aging affects attentional guidance during search in more complex scenes. To study this issue, we analyzed eye-movement behavior in realistic scene search. We examined age-related differences in top-down guidance, manipulating target template specificity (picture vs. word cue) and target-scene semantic consistency (consistent vs. inconsistent), and in bottom-up guidance, manipulating perceptual salience (high vs. low) of targets and distractors. Compared to young adults (YA), older adults (OA) were overall slower, from the first saccade in the scene. They showed a smaller benefit of a specific target template, suggesting that precision of visual information in working memory may decrease with age. The benefit of semantic consistency did not depend on age, suggesting a preserved ability in OA to use knowledge about object occurrence in scenes. OA showed greater bottom-up search facilitation due to target's high salience, which may depend on reduced selection of low-salience stimuli. Attentional capture by distractors was greater in OA than YA, with respect to engagement (probability of distractor fixation), but only following a picture cue, and disengagement (fixation duration on distractors) in all conditions. Overall, our study shows that age-related differences in visual selection of targets and distractors depend on specific task demands in terms of top-down and bottom-up guidance. It also indicates that scene search difficulties in OA can be limited by cognitive and perceptual forms of environmental support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Background and purpose Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes with Hu‐antibodies (Hu‐PNS) are immune‐mediated disorders in patients with malignancies, most frequently small cell lung cancer, affecting both the peripheral and central nervous system (CNS). In Hu‐PNS, brainstem and cerebellar involvement are common. Here, we assessed whether eye‐movement disturbances can be used for diagnosis and monitoring of CNS involvement in Hu‐PNS. Methods Twenty‐nine patients with Hu‐PNS (17 females; mean age, 63.2 years,) and 14 healthy age‐matched controls (seven females; mean age, 60.2 years) were included. Saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements in response to visual stimuli were recorded with video‐oculography. Eye movements were scored quantitatively (number of correction saccades, saccadic intrusions, and saccades during fixation period) and qualitatively by two eye‐movement experts. In 20 patients, up to three follow‐up measurements were made during subsequent hospital visits with fixed 4‐week intervals. Disease course was assessed using the modified Rankin Scale. Results Eye movements were disturbed in 26 of 29 Hu‐PNS patients, with horizontal eye movements being in general more impaired. Moreover, in 12 of the 14 Hu‐PNS patients without clinical CNS involvement, eye movements were disturbed. Changes in eye‐movement control over a period of up to 12 weeks were significantly correlated with the clinical response to treatment (ρ = 0.52, p = 0.02). Conclusions Hu‐PNS often affects eye‐movement control, also in the absence of CNS signs or symptoms. Eye‐movement recordings in Hu‐PNS patients might be a useful tool to objectively monitor progression and treatment efficacy in Hu‐PNS patients., Eye movements are often disturbed in patients with anti‐Hu–associated paraneoplastic neurological syndromes, including in those without clinical signs of CNS involvement. Eye‐movement recordings might contribute to determining disease progression and therapy response.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effects of visual themes and view perspectives on users’ visual attention to brand posts on Instagram. The impact of visual attention on brand attitude and recognition is also explored. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a 4 (visual themes: customer-centric, employee-centric, product-centric and symbolic visuals) × 2 (view perspectives: first-person view vs third-person view) between-subject factorial eye-tracking experiment to explore their effects on viewers’ visual attention (fixation frequency and fixation duration), attitude toward the brand and brand recognition. Findings Results showed that, under a first-person view, participants spent the longest time viewing customer-centric images and paid the most attention to product-centric and customer-centric images. For images in the third-person view, product-centric images received the longest fixation duration and highest fixation frequency. Customer-centric image and product-centric image generated significantly higher amount of fixation duration and fixation frequency than the symbolic image, regardless of view perspective. Brand recognition was positively influenced by fixation frequency but not by fixation duration. Originality/value This study is an extended application of Aaker’s (1996) brand identity planning model in visual branding on Instagram. As the findings indicated, the effective use of visual strategies could lead to more positive responses toward the brand. By understanding how optical elements stimulate visual branding processing, marketing professionals will be able to improve information designing skills in visual-based social media platforms (such as Instagram).

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have limitations in their attention and working memory that affect their motor learning. The aim of current study was to compare point-light display (PLD) to video observation as instructional models for teaching motor skills to children with ASD versus typically developing (TD) children. We randomly assigned 24 children with ASD aged 6-17-years-old and 24 age paired typically developing (TD) children to four groups: (a) ASD-Video, (b) ASD-PLD, (c) TD-Video, and (d) TD-PLD. After twenty training blocks (200 trials), all participants entered into late retention and transfer testing. We recorded all participants’ visual gazes when observing each PLD and Video condition. Both PLD groups had better performance in the acquisition phase, and on retention and transfer tests. Also, gaze recordings revealed that children with ASD paid more attention to relevant demonstration points in the PLD than in the video condition. We discuss possible mechanisms and implications of these findings.

The lesion detection rate of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) varies depending on the degree of experience of the endoscopist and anatomical blind spots. This study aimed to identify gaze patterns and blind spots by analyzing the endoscopist’s gaze during real-time EGD. Five endoscopists were enrolled in this study. The endoscopist’s eye gaze tracked by an eye tracker was selected from the esophagogastric junction to the second portion of the duodenum without the esophagus during insertion and withdrawal, and then matched with photos. Gaze patterns were visualized as a gaze plot, blind spot detection as a heatmap, observation time (OT), fixation duration (FD), and FD-to-OT ratio. The mean OT and FD were 11.10 ± 11.14 min and 8.37 ± 9.95 min, respectively, and the FD-to-OT ratio was 72.5%. A total of 34.3% of the time was spent observing the antrum. When observing the body of the stomach, it took longer to observe the high body in the retroflexion view and the low-to-mid body in the forward view. It is necessary to minimize gaze distraction and observe the posterior wall in the retroflexion view. Our results suggest that eye-tracking techniques may be useful for future endoscopic training and education.

Depressed individuals exhibit an attentional bias towards mood-congruent stimuli, yet evidence for biased processing of threat-related information in human interaction remains scarce. Here, we tested whether an attentional bias towards interpersonally aggressive pictures over interpersonally neutral pictures could be observed to a greater extent in depressed participants than in control participants. Eye movements were recorded while the participants freely viewed visually matched interpersonally aggressive and neutral pictures, which were presented in pairs. Across the groups, participants spent more time looking at neutral pictures than at aggressive pictures, probably reflecting avoidance behaviour. When the participants could anticipate the stimulus valence, depressed participants – but not controls – showed an early attentional bias towards interpersonally aggressive pictures, as indexed by their longer first fixation durations on aggressive pictures than on neutral pictures. Our results thus preliminarily suggest both an early attentional bias towards interpersonal aggression, which is present, in depressed participants, also when aggression contents are anticipated, and a later attentional avoidance of aggression. The early depression-related bias in information processing may have maladaptive effects on the way depressed individuals perceive and function in social interaction and can therefore maintain depressed mood. peerReviewed

Given the central importance of the "eyes," meaning the periorbital region, to facial appearance, the motivated blepharoplasty patient has the opportunity to improve appearance significantly beyond the minimum of age reversal, to reveal inner beauty or add attractiveness. Bright and beautiful eyes have good three-dimensional contouring. The benefits of a quality eyelid crease enable the surgical focus to be on lid contouring with a reduced requirement for lid skin and fat excision. A durable crease maintains fixation of both the tarsal and infrabrow segments. The softness of youthful eyes can be regained by precise, but cautious, use of lipofilling.

To assess the effect of support unloading on an intensity of neuronal activity (NA) in the areas of the posterior parietal cortex associated with planning and correction of reaching arm movements (5d, PRR, 7a, and LIP), NA of the studied areas of the cortex was recorded in two monkeys with a fixed head when performing the task of moving the cursor to a peripheral target using the joystick before and after 3-h water immersion. Fixation of the head in animals excluded the influence of changes in the vestibular entrance on the results obtained. The data obtained confirmed our assumption about the effect of support unloading on planning and correction of hand movements during the performance of the used motor task, which manifested itself in a decrease in the cursor movement accuracy and changes in the NA intensity in three PPC areas. However, in connection with the newest data on the dominance of the sensitivity of the region 7a (traditionally considered as visual) to the vestibular entrance, up to the inhibition of the visual entrance, it is much more important to conclude that it is necessary to first study various options for the interaction of the vestibular, visual and proprioceptive inputs in the areas of the cortex associated with reaching hand movements, from their convergence to the inhibition of one signal by another.

This study examined the effects of storytelling with or without contextual information on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typical development (TD) using eye-tracker. They were randomized into two groups—the stories included and did not include social contextual information respectively. Training was delivered in groups, with eight sessions across four weeks, 30 min/session. Participants’ fixation duration, visit duration, and fixation count on human faces from 20 photos and a video were recorded. Our findings revealed that storytelling with social contextual information enhanced participants’ eye gazes on eyes/ faces in static information (photos) for both children with ASD and TD, but the same advantage could not be seen for children with ASD in regard to dynamic information (videos). Clinical Trial Registration Number (URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov ): NCT04587557