Eye-Movement Research: an Overview of Current and Past Developments

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Eye-Movement Research: an Overview of Current and Past Developments Elsevier AMS Ch01-I044980 Job code: EMAW 14-2-2007 1:04p.m. Page:1 Trimsize:165×240MM Chapter 1 EYE-MOVEMENT RESEARCH: AN OVERVIEW OF CURRENT AND PAST DEVELOPMENTS ROGER P. G. VAN GOMPEL, MARTIN H. FISCHER AND WAYNE S. MURRAY University of Dundee, UK ROBIN L. HILL University of Edinburgh, UK Eye Movements: A Window on Mind and Brain Edited by R. P. G. van Gompel, M. H. Fischer, W. S. Murray and R. L. Hill Copyright © 2007 by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Basal Fonts:Times Margins:Top:4.6pc Gutter:4.6pc Font Size:10/12 Text Width:30pc Depth:43 Lines Elsevier AMS Ch01-I044980 Job code: EMAW 14-2-2007 1:04p.m. Page:2 Trimsize:165×240MM 2 R. P. G. van Gompel et al. Abstract This opening chapter begins with an overview of the issues and questions addressed in the remainder of this book, the contents of which reflect the wide diversity of eye-movement research. We then provide the reader with an up-to-date impression of the most significant developments in the area, based on findings from a survey of eye-movement researchers and database searches. We find that the most heavily cited publications are not necessarily those rated as most influential. It is clear that eye-movement research is published across a wide variety of journals and the number of articles is increasing, but the relative proportion of eye-movement articles has remained almost constant. The United States produces the largest number of these articles, but other countries actually produce more per capita. Finally, we see that computational modelling, new eye-tracking technologies and anatomical and physiological mapping of the visual-oculomotor system are viewed as the most important recent developments. Basal Fonts:Times Margins:Top:4.6pc Gutter:4.6pc Font Size:10/12 Text Width:30pc Depth:43 Lines Elsevier AMS Ch01-I044980 Job code: EMAW 14-2-2007 1:04p.m. Page:3 Trimsize:165×240MM Ch. 1: Eye-Movement Research 3 Orpheus called the eyes, the looking glasses of nature: Hesichius, the doores for the Sunne to enter in by: Alexander the Peripatecian, the windowes of the mind, because that by the eyes we doe cleerely see what is in the same, we pearce into the deepe thoughts thereof, and enter into the privities of his secret chamber. (Du Laurens, 1596, translated by Surphlet, 1599, p. 19) When Du Laurens (1596), a sixteenth-century French anatomist and medical scientist, referred to the eyes as windowes of the mind, he reflected a view both ancient and modern. And it seems clear today that people’s eye movements do indeed reveal much about the workings of both mind and brain. In recent years, the study of eye movements has become one of the most important and productive ways for investigating aspects of mind and brain across a wide variety of topic areas. This book contains a collection of chapters that reflect that breadth and, we believe, the sort of productivity that stems from this type of research. The 12th European Conference on Eye Movements, ECEM12, held in Dundee, Scotland, provided the foundation for this collection. This biennial conference brings together a large number of eye-movement researchers drawn from a wide variety of differ- ent disciplines, such as clinical researchers, neurophysiologists, cognitive psychologists, vision scientists and ergonomists, to mention but a few, and this book contains a similarly wide range of research topics. The research is grouped into eight parts, each of which presents a different area central to current eye-movement research. Each section begins with an overview chapter that provides a critical review of current research in the area, fol- lowed by a series of chapters reporting new findings and addressing new topics. Of course, the organisation into sections does not imply that there are no links between the chapters in the different sections. Although eye-movement research can be divided into several fairly well-defined research areas, much research draws on findings from more than a single area, and research frequently crosses the boundaries between different disciplines – per- haps one reason why the interdisciplinary nature of ECEM has always been so successful. The chapters in this book present an overview of current developments in eye-movement research. However, eye-movement research has become a vast area, so naturally, some research fields are better represented than others. Included in this book are areas that have recently developed as well as established areas with a much longer tradition in eye-movement research. Recent developments include the history of eye-movement research (Part 1), eye movements as a method for investigating spoken language pro- cessing (Part 6), and eye movements in natural environments (Part 8). The modelling of eye movements (Part 4), although not really new, has also seen a great deal of recent change and development. Areas that have been longer established but continue to produce important new findings are physiology and clinical studies of eye movements (Part 2), transsaccadic integration (Part 3), eye-movements and reading (Part 5), and eye movements as a method for investigating attention and scene perception (Part 7). In this opening chapter, we aim to highlight the most important developments in eye- movement research. We begin by providing an overview of the chapters in the different sections of this book. This should provide the reader with a thorough subjective impression of the most important current developments in eye-movement research. We then follow Basal Fonts:Times Margins:Top:4.6pc Gutter:4.6pc Font Size:10/12 Text Width:30pc Depth:43 Lines Elsevier AMS Ch01-I044980 Job code: EMAW 14-2-2007 1:04p.m. Page:4 Trimsize:165×240MM 4 R. P. G. van Gompel et al. this with a more objective form of assessment. We consider the state of eye-movement research (both in the present and the past) by reporting results from a survey sent to participants of ECEM12 and a journal database search. Based on this combination, our aim is to provide the reader with a synoptic overview of current and past developments across the field in general. 1. Overview of the parts in this book 1.1. History of eye-movement research Looking backwards is the perfect way to begin a book on eye-movement research. Knowing the genesis and evolution of any subject is critical to understanding the motivation and driving forces (both psychological and technological) that lie behind sci- entific progress in the area. Our first part therefore examines the historical foundations of eye-movement research; something which has permeated through an extremely rich and diverse range of multidisciplinary empirical topics. The opening chapter by Wade places the birth of the modern scientific study of eye movements firmly in the eighteenth century, before charting its historical progress via the thoughts and works of many generations of eminent scientists. Central to this was the growth in physiological experimentation, and the examination/exploitation of visual vertigo, torsion, and afterimages in particular. Wade also describes how through the ingenious use of technology, techniques for acquiring eye-movement records and studying scan paths were developed to facilitate reading research and the study of visual perception. The immediate post-war period is the focus of Westheimer’s historical account. He documents how multidisciplinary scientific work forged under conditions of war later sparked a mini-renaissance in instrumentation and neurophysiological techniques. This naturally fed through into a greater understanding of the oculomotor system and helped establish the investigation of eye movements as a major tool in psychological research. Following Westheimer, Land’s exposition begins in the 1950s but rapidly brings us up to date. Again, he relates how the development of modern technology, choosing head-mounted mobile eye-trackers as his specific example, has led to advances across a range of eye-movement research areas. The flexibility afforded by such devices frees us from many constraints (often literally in the case of head-vices and bite-bars) and opens up the “real” world to greater investigation. Together, these three chapters make it clear that the act of looking backwards results in our forward vision becoming sharper and brighter. 1.2. Physiology and clinical studies of eye movements The second part of the book deals with physiological and clinical studies of eye movements. First, Munoz, Armstrong, and Coe provide an authoritative overview on how Basal Fonts:Times Margins:Top:4.6pc Gutter:4.6pc Font Size:10/12 Text Width:30pc Depth:43 Lines Elsevier AMS Ch01-I044980 Job code: EMAW 14-2-2007 1:04p.m. Page:5 Trimsize:165×240MM Ch. 1: Eye-Movement Research 5 to use simple eye-movement tasks to diagnose both the developmental state and the pos- sible dysfunctions of the cortical and subcortical oculomotor system. Their accumulator model allows an understanding of performance profiles across a wide range of deficits, such as Parkinson’s disease, Tourette syndrome, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In the second Chapter in this part, Ford, Brown, and Everling report an fMRI study which shows that anti-saccade task performance depends on specific brain activation prior to stimulus presentation. Their work describes the relationship between frontal brain activity and the accuracy of a subsequent saccadic decision. It also illustrates how eye-tracking can be combined with high-tech brain imaging methods that have become popular over the last two decades. The final chapter in this part is by Bour, Van der Meer, and Van Mourik. These authors describe commutative eye rotations in congenital nystagmus (a fixation instability resulting from visual or oculomotor deficits) and a computational model that predicts anatomical aberrations in a patient with congenital nystagmus.
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