Active Vision
While in my recent research projects I focused on large voluntary saccades, reaching movements and eye-hand coordination, I have maintained an active interest in the role of smaller fixational eye movements in perception2–4, the topic of my doctoral work in the primary visual cortex5–7.
In collaboration with the labs of Michele Rucci and Martina Poletti at the Rochester University, who developed advanced digital dual-Purkinje image eye-tracker and gaze-contingent display methodology, I plan to incorporate precise measurements of fixational eye movements in the context of decision-making and eye-hand coordination paradigms in macaques, as plausible indicators of attentional allocation, motor preparation or spatiotemporal eye-hand relationship, and to adapt some of their precise spatiotemporal paradigms.
References
1. Kagan, I., and Hafed, Z.M. (2013). Active vision: microsaccades direct the eye to where it matters most. Current Biology 23, R712–R714. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.038
2. Kagan, I., and Burr, D.C. (2017). Active Vision: Dynamic Reformatting of Visual Information by the Saccade-Drift Cycle. Current Biology 27, R341–R344. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.03.042
3. Kagan, I. (2012). Active vision: fixational eye movements help seeing space in time. Current Biology 22, R186–R188. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.02.009
4. Benedetto, A., and Kagan, I. (2023). Active vision: How you look reflects what you are looking for. Current Biology 33, R303–R305. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.012.
5. Kagan, I., Gur, M., and Snodderly, D.M. (2008). Saccades and drifts differentially modulate neuronal activity in V1: Effects of retinal image motion, position, and extraretinal influences. Journal of Vision 8, 1–19. doi.org/10.1167/8.14.19.
6. Snodderly, D.M., Kagan, I., and Gur, M. (2001). Selective activation of visual cortex neurons by fixational eye movements: implications for neural coding. Vis Neurosci 18, 259–277. doi.org/10.1017/s0952523801182118
7. Kagan, I., Gur, M., and Snodderly, D.M. (2002). Spatial organization of receptive fields of V1 neurons of alert monkeys: comparison with responses to gratings. Journal of Neurophysiology 88, 2557–2574. doi.org/10.1152/jn.00858.2001