Name: eye-tracking to distinguish comprehension-based and oculomotor-based regressive eye movements during reading
Uploaded: 2018-10-18T14:45:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Eye-tracking to Distinguish Comprehension-based and Oculomotor-based Regressive Eye Movements During Reading at JoVE.com

The authors have no acknowledgments.

The Institutional Review Boards of Kent State University and Stetson University have approved all methods described here.
1. Eligible Participants
NOTE: The purpose of this research is to understand reading processes in skilled adult readers. Thus, certain eligibility requirements must be met. Such controls ensure that results are directly applicable to a population of skilled adult readers with typical cognitive processes.
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	<li>Recruit parti...

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	<li>Rayner, K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Eye+movements+in+reading+and+information+processing:+20+years+of+research.">Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research.</a> Psychological Bulletin. 124 (3), 372-422 (1998).</li><li>Posner, M. I., Cohen, Y. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Components+of+visual+orienting.">Components of visual orienting.</a> Attention and Performance X: Control Language Processes. (32), 531-556 (1984).</li><li>Klein, R. K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Inhibition+of+return.">Inhibition of return.</a> Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 4 (4), 138-147 (2000).</li><li>Henderson, J. M., Luke, S. 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J., Ashby, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Eye+movements+as+reflections+of+comprehension+processing+in+reading.">Eye movements as reflections of comprehension processing in reading.</a> Scientific Studies of Reading. 10 (3), 241-255 (2009).</li><li>Schotter, E. R., Tran, R., Rayner, K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Don&#8217;t+believe+what+you+read+(only+once)+comprehension+is+supported+by+regressions+during+reading.">Don&#8217;t believe what you read (only once) comprehension is supported by regressions during reading.</a> Psychological Science. 26 (6), 1218-1226 (2014).</li><li>Eskenazi, M. A., Folk, J. R. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Skipped+words+and+fixated+words+are+processed+differently+during+reading.">Skipped words and fixated words are processed differently during reading.</a> Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 22 (2), 537-542 (2015).</li><li>Titone, D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Hemispheric+differences+in+context+sensitivity+during+lexical+ambiguity+resolution.">Hemispheric differences in context sensitivity during lexical ambiguity resolution.</a> Brain and Language. 65 (3), 361-394 (1998).</li><li>Reichle, E. 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W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+University+of+South+Florida+homograph+norms.">The University of South Florida homograph norms.</a> Behavior Research Methods. 12 (1), 16-37 (1980).</li><li>Baayen, R. H., Piepenbrock, R., Gulikers, L. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> CELEX2 LDC96L14. Web Download. Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium. , (1995).</li><li>Rayner, K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Eye+movements+and+the+perceptual+span+in+beginning+and+skilled+readers.">Eye movements and the perceptual span in beginning and skilled readers.</a> Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 42 (2), 211-236 (1986).</li><li>Ashby, J., Rayner, K., Clifton, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Eye+movements+of+highly+skilled+and+average+readers:+Differential+effects+of+frequency+and+predictability.">Eye movements of highly skilled and average readers: Differential effects of frequency and predictability.</a> Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A. 58 (6), 1065-1086 (2005).</li></ol>

The current research provides a method for distinguishing between two different types of regressive eye movements during reading - those that are based on comprehension difficulty and those that are based on oculomotor error. The data provide evidence that a low-level attentional process, IOR, may depend on the type of regression. It was found that IOR only occurs for oculomotor-based regressions, but not for comprehension based regressions14. Thus, it is important...

The method described in this paper was designed to investigate the role of inhibition of return (IOR) in regressive eye movements during reading, focusing on regressions triggered as a result of comprehension difficulty versus those triggered as a result of oculomotor error. Specifically, we investigated whether regressions launched as a result of comprehension difficulty and those launched as a result of oculomotor error are subject to IOR effects.
Regressive eye movements, or regressions, are eye movements that move backwards through the text. Depending on reader and text characteristics, 10-25% of eye movements move backwards1. This has led researchers to investigate whether IOR effects affect regressive eye movements during natural reading. IOR is an oculomotor effect that results in increased latency to return attention to a target that had been previously attended compared to a target that had not been previously attended2. While much of the work done to establish IOR effects has involved non-reading visual attention tasks3, the effect has been extended to reading4,5.
The work examining regressions and IOR in reading has focused on whether an oculomotor effect such as IOR can influence eye movement control in reading. One study5 found evidence of IOR in a reading task. They found that readers spent approximately 30 ms longer on the fixation preceding a regression. This was interpreted as the IOR &#34;cost&#34; - the delay before returning to a previously fixated position. This was supported in regular reading and mindless reading conditions6.
Despite evidence that IOR can be found in regular reading situations, it is clear that regressive eye movements do not all have the same underlying cause. Regressions resulting from comprehension difficulty have been well documented7,8,9,10.&#160;Despite the evidence that eye movements during reading are generally guided by cognitive and linguistic factors1, it is also assumed that sometimes regressions occur in response to low-level oculomotor factors, such as target overshoot1. It is assumed that on some trials, readers mis-program a saccade and land beyond their intended target word (an overshoot). In this case, a short, corrective regressive saccade may occur so that the unintentionally skipped word can be fixated. Given that two underlying mechanisms - linguistic and oculomotor - have been posited for regressive eye movements, it is not clear whether IOR occurs for both. The current method allows for the measurement of IOR effects when regressive eye movements have been launched as a result of comprehension difficulties and as a result of oculomotor overshoot. Thus, the method allows researchers to distinguish the underlying mechanisms of regressive eye movements, allowing for the evaluation of IOR effects.
The current method takes advantage of the two identified mechanisms triggering regressive eye movements. By designing the materials so that re-reading is likely to be triggered by comprehension difficulty or overshoot, researchers are able to examine the circumstances under which IOR might occur in reading. To encourage re-reading as a result of oculomotor error, we embedded short target words that show high skipping rates of about 50% (adapted from previous research11). Skipped words are often followed by a corrective regressive saccade when the skipping is a result of oculomotor error11. The other set of materials was comprised of sentences that contained semantically ambiguous homographic homophones (e.g., grade: school/incline). The sentences were adapted from an ambiguity study12 and contained information as to the intended meaning of the homophone that followed the word. Thus, this would increase the chances that readers would re-read for comprehension. The context was consistent with the less-likely meaning of the homophone, making it likely that readers would have to re-read after having initially selected the more frequent, dominant meaning on their first encounter with the target word. The combination of eye-movement monitoring and materials designed to increase regressions makes this method unique in allowing for the examination of regressive eye movements with differing underlying causes.
Understanding the mechanisms underlying regressive saccades and the role that oculomotor factors such as IOR play in them is important to models of eye movement control as well as for understanding the relationship between oculomotor and cognitive control of eye movements. For example, a recent version of the E-Z Reader model of eye movement control employs a 30 ms cost for all regressive eye movements13. However, our methodology demonstrated that such a cost only applies to regressions resulting from oculomotor error.
Eye movement measures allow researchers to track the moment-to-moment cognitive processing during reading1. Recently, models of eye movement control have begun to try to explain the mechanisms underlying regressive eye movements. Since regressions are often launched in relation to comprehension difficulties, any researcher interested in understanding the comprehension processes during reading should attempt to differentiate regressions resulting from oculomotor error versus comprehension processes. This methodology indicates that a cost for regressions is a result only of oculomotor error, serving as a launching point for differentiating between types of regressions. The combination of eye movement measures (regressions, fixation times before regressions) and carefully controlled materials allow for this differentiation.

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			<td style="width:167px;">Video-based eye tracker</td>
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			<td>Software to build eye tracking experiments</td>
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			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Data Viewer</td>
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eye-tracking to distinguish comprehension-based and oculomotor-based regressive eye movements during reading

Regressive eye movements are eye movements that move backwards through the text and comprise approximately 10-25% of eye movements during reading. As such, understanding the causes and mechanisms of regressions plays an important role in understanding eye movement behavior. Inhibition of return (IOR) is an oculomotor effect that results in increased latency to return attention to a previously attended target versus a target that was not previously attended. Thus, IOR may affect regressions. This paper describes how to design materials to distinguish between regressions caused by comprehension-related and oculomotor processes; the latter is subject to IOR. The method allows researchers to identify IOR and control the causes of regressions. While the method requires tightly controlled materials and large numbers of participants and materials, it allows researchers to distinguish and control the types of regressions that occur in their reading studies.

The results of our previous work using this paradigm14 resulted in a 17% regression rate in the oculomotor error condition and a 29% regression rate in the comprehension difficulty condition14. In the oculomotor error condition, 32% of the regressions were to previously fixated words and 68% of regressions were to previously skipped words. The reverse pattern occurred in the comprehension difficulty condition. Of the 29% of regressions, 61% were to previously fixated words ...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Eye-tracking to Distinguish Comprehension-based and Oculomotor-based Regressive Eye Movements During Reading at JoVE.com

Eye-tracking to Distinguish Comprehension-based and Oculomotor-based Regressive Eye Movements During Reading

The method was designed to investigate the role of inhibition of return (IOR) in regressive eye movements during reading. The focus is on differentiating between regressions triggered as a result of comprehension difficulty versus those triggered from oculomotor error, including the role of IOR in the two types of regressions.

Regressive eye movements are eye movements that move backwards through the text and comprise approximately 10-25% of eye movements during reading. As ...

This method can help answer key questions related to eye movement control during reading such as the role of inhibition of return in regressive saccades. The main advantage of this technique is that it allows the researcher to distinguish between different types of regressive eye movements. Demonstrating the procedure will be Cassidy Campbell, Mackenzie Nalven, and Brittany Thomas who are undergraduate research assistants in my lab.Cassidy will control the eye tracker as the researcher, Mackenzie will be the participant, and Brittany will complete the closed task. Begin by preparing the experimental stimuli for oculomotor corrective regressions. To do this, select words from an English language corpus such as SUBTLWF which provides a list of words and their frequencies in counts per million.First select a set of at least 30 target words which are the stimuli for which word skipping and regressive eye movements will be measured. To facilitate skipping, select three-letter content words with frequencies lower than 30 counts per million. Also select pre-target words that the reader is likely to fixate before skipping or fixating the target word.These should be high frequency with at least 30 counts per million and have five to seven letters. Next, select the post-target words that the reader is likely to fixate on after skipping or fixating the target word. Select high-frequency prepositions with at least four letters.Now using the words selected in the previous steps, create sentence contexts in which these three words will be embedded. Place all words stimuli in the middle of the sentence. An example sentence is seen here.In this sentence green is the pre-target word, gem is the three-letter low frequency unpredictable target word, and around is the post-target word. After sentence frames are created, use a separate set of participants to norm the stimuli using a closed task to ensure that the target word is not predictable from the sentence context. Have these participants view each sentence context up until the target word without including the target and produce a word that they think best fits the sentence.This can be done using pen and paper or software for behavioral research. Next, prepare stimuli for comprehension based regressions. For this experiment, obtain sentence context by referencing appendix A in the article seen here which provides neutral sentence frames that end with an ambiguous homophone.Then determine the subordinate meaning of the target word using the University of South Florida homograph norms and write the second half of the sentence that disambiguates the homophone to its subordinate meaning. For example, the subordinate meaning of the homophone grade is hill incline while the dominant meeting is evaluation scale. Thus for the sentence seen here, add of the hill they were driving down to complete the sentence.Use an eye tracker with a sampling rate of 1, 000 Hertz meaning eye positions will be measured 1, 000 times per second. Eye movements will be measured from the right eye for this experiment. Use a 21 inch or smaller size monitor and have participants sit about 60 centimeters away from the screen.Provide a chin rest to stabilize head movements and allow them to adjust the height of both the chin rest and chair until they are comfortable. Also provide a keyboard and instruct them to rest their fingers on yes and no buttons that will be used to answer comprehension questions during the experiment. Now instruct the participant to gaze at a white circle in the center of a black screen to calibrate their eye positions.They should keep their eyes on the circle and follow it as it moves around to a total of nine positions on the screen. Next, validate eye positions by having the participant gaze at a white circle on the left side of the screen in the location of the first letter of the first word. Then press a button that controls the onset of reading.Each sentence should appear in random order in the center of the screen. Use a monospaced font so that all characters take up the same amount of space on the participants retina. Intermix filler sentences and comprehension sentences followed by questions with the experimental sentences.Be sure to perform a drift correct prior to each sentence and recalibrate the participants eye positions if they are off by more than one degree of visual angle. This figure shows reading times on target words from which the regression was launched. The regression was either made to a word that was previously fixated or previously skipped.Regression to the previously fixated words are expected to be longer if there is an inhibition of return effect demonstrating the latency to move the eyes back to a previously fixated target. Once mastered, this technique can be done in about 30 minutes per participant if it is performed properly. While attempting this procedure, it's important to remember that skipping rates tend to be low so a large number of stimuli and participants are needed to have sufficient power to detect differences.After watching this video you should have a good understanding of how to create stimuli that will result in a regressive eye movements to correct for oculomotor error and stimuli that will result in regressive eye movements caused by comprehension difficulty.

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Research

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Behavior

Using Eye Movements to Evaluate the Cognitive Processes Involved in Text Comprehension

The present article describes how to use eye tracking methodologies to study the cognitive processes involved in text comprehension. Measuring eye movements during reading is one of the most precise methods for measuring moment-by-moment (online) processing demands during text comprehension. Cognitive processing demands are reflected by several aspects of eye movement behavior, such as fixation duration, number of fixations, and number of regressions (returning to prior parts of a text). Important properties of eye tracking equipment that researchers need to consider are described, including how frequently the eye position is measured (sampling rate), accuracy of determining eye position, how much head movement is allowed, and ease of use. Also described are properties of stimuli that influence eye movements that need to be controlled in studies of text comprehension, such as the position, frequency, and length of target words. Procedural recommendations related to preparing the participant, setting up and calibrating the equipment, and running a study are given. Representative results are presented to illustrate how data can be evaluated. Although the methodology is described in terms of reading comprehension, much of the information presented can be applied to any study in which participants read verbal stimuli.

The present article describes how to use eye tracking methodologies to study the cognitive processes involved in text comprehension. Descriptions of eye tracking equipment, how to develop experimental stimuli, and procedural recommendations are included. The information presented can be applied to most any study using verbal stimuli.

The present article describes how to use eye  tracking methodologies to study the cognitive processes involved in text  comprehension. Measuring eye ...

Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory

Although rises in cortisol can benefit memory consolidation, as can sleep soon after encoding, there is currently a paucity of literature as to how these two factors may interact to influence consolidation. Here we present a protocol to examine the interactive influence of cortisol and sleep on memory consolidation, by combining three methods: eye tracking, salivary cortisol analysis, and behavioral memory testing across sleep and wake delays. To assess resting cortisol levels, participants gave a saliva sample before viewing negative and neutral objects within scenes. To measure overt attention, participants&#8217; eye gaze was tracked during encoding. To manipulate whether sleep occurred during the consolidation window, participants either encoded scenes in the evening, slept overnight, and took a recognition test the next morning, or encoded scenes in the morning and remained awake during a comparably long retention interval. Additional control groups were tested after a 20&#160;min&#160;delay in the morning or evening, to control for time-of-day effects. Together, results showed that there is a direct relation between resting cortisol at encoding and subsequent memory, only following a period of sleep. Through eye tracking, it was further determined that for negative stimuli, this beneficial effect of cortisol on subsequent memory may be due to cortisol strengthening the relation between where participants look during encoding and what they are later able to remember. Overall, results obtained by a combination of these methods uncovered an interactive effect of sleep and cortisol on memory consolidation.

We present a protocol used to discover an interactive effect between sleep and cortisol on memory consolidation, particularly for negative arousing images. Specifically, the experimental design utilizes eye tracking, salivary cortisol analysis, and behavioral memory testing &#8211; methods that can be used with both healthy and clinical participants.

Although rises in cortisol can benefit memory consolidation, as can sleep soon after encoding, there is currently a paucity of literature as to how these ...

A Method to Quantify Visual Information Processing in Children Using Eye Tracking

Visual problems that occur early in life can have major impact on a child's development. Without verbal communication and only based on observational methods, it is difficult to make a quantitative assessment of a child's visual problems. This limits accurate diagnostics in children under the age of 4 years and in children with intellectual disabilities. Here we describe a quantitative method that overcomes these problems. The method uses a remote eye tracker and a four choice preferential looking paradigm to measure eye movement responses to different visual stimuli. The child sits without head support in front of a monitor with integrated infrared cameras. In one of four monitor quadrants a visual stimulus is presented. Each stimulus has a specific visual modality with respect to the background, e.g., form, motion, contrast or color. From the reflexive eye movement responses to these specific visual modalities, output parameters such as reaction times, fixation accuracy and fixation duration are calculated to quantify a child's viewing behavior. With this approach, the quality of visual information processing can be assessed without the use of communication. By comparing results with reference values obtained in typically developing children from 0-12 years, the method provides a characterization of visual information processing in visually impaired children. The quantitative information provided by this method can be advantageous for the field of clinical visual assessment and rehabilitation in multiple ways. The parameter values provide a good basis to: (i) characterize early visual capacities and consequently to enable early interventions; (ii) compare risk groups and follow visual development over time; and (iii), construct an individual visual profile for each child.

A method is described to quantify the quality of visual information processing based on reflexive eye movements in response to specific visual modalities. Reaction times and fixation output parameters are used to characterize visual performance in children with and without visual impairments from 6 months of age.

Visual problems that occur early in life can have major impact on a child's development. Without verbal communication and only based on observational ...

Eye-Tracking Control to Assess Cognitive Functions in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder with pathological involvement of upper and lower motoneurons, subsequently leading to progressive loss of motor and speech abilities. In addition, cognitive functions are impaired in a subset of patients. To evaluate these potential deficits in severely physically impaired ALS patients, eye-tracking is a promising means to conduct cognitive tests. The present article focuses on how eye movements, an indirect means of communication for physically disabled patients, can be utilized to allow for detailed neuropsychological assessment. The requirements, in terms of oculomotor parameters that have to be met for sufficient eye-tracking in ALS patients are presented. The properties of stimuli, including type of neuropsychological tests and style of presentation, best suited to successfully assess cognitive functioning, are also described. Furthermore, recommendations regarding procedural requirements are provided. Overall, this methodology provides a reliable, easy to administer and fast approach for assessing cognitive deficits in patients who are unable to speak or write such as patients with severe ALS. The only confounding factor might be deficits in voluntary eye movement control in a subset of ALS patients.

Cognitive deficits are common in about one third of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurological condition leading to progressive impairments in speech and movement abilities. To conduct cognitive tests in patients unable to speak or write a reliable and easy to administer eye-tracking paradigm was developed.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder with pathological involvement of upper and lower motoneurons, subsequently leading to ...

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

The present work is a description and an assessment of a methodology designed to quantify different aspects of the interaction between language processing and the perception of the visual world. The recording of eye-gaze patterns has provided good evidence for the contribution of both the visual context and linguistic/world knowledge to language comprehension. Initial research assessed object-context effects to test&#160;theories of modularity in language processing. In the introduction, we describe how subsequent investigations have taken the role of the wider visual context in language processing as a research topic in its own right, asking questions such as how our visual perception of events and of speakers contributes to&#160;comprehension informed by&#160;comprehenders&#39; experience. Among the examined aspects of the visual context are actions, events, a speaker&#39;s gaze, and emotional facial expressions, as well as spatial object configurations. Following an overview of the eye-tracking method and its different applications, we list the key steps of the methodology in the protocol, illustrating how to successfully use it to study visually-situated language comprehension. A final section presents three sets of representative results and illustrates the benefits and limitations of eye tracking for investigating the interplay between the perception of the visual world and language comprehension.

The present article reviews an eye-tracking methodology for studies on language comprehension. To obtain reliable data, key steps of the protocol must be followed. Among these are the correct set-up of the eye tracker (e.g., ensuring good quality of the eye and head images) and accurate calibration.

The present work is a description and an assessment of a methodology designed to quantify different aspects of the interaction between language processing ...

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Young children's visual environments are dynamic, changing moment-by-moment as children physically and visually explore spaces and objects and interact with people around them. Head-mounted eye tracking offers a unique opportunity to capture children's dynamic egocentric views and how they allocate visual attention within those views. This protocol provides guiding principles and practical recommendations for researchers using head-mounted eye trackers in both laboratory and more naturalistic settings. Head-mounted eye tracking complements other experimental methods by enhancing opportunities for data collection in more ecologically valid contexts through increased portability and freedom of head and body movements compared to screen-based eye tracking. This protocol can also be integrated with other technologies, such as motion tracking and heart-rate monitoring, to provide a high-density multimodal dataset for examining natural behavior, learning, and development than previously possible. This paper illustrates the types of data generated from head-mounted eye tracking in a study designed to investigate visual attention in one natural context for toddlers: free-flowing toy play with a parent. Successful use of this protocol will allow researchers to collect data that can be used to answer questions not only about visual attention, but also about a broad range of other perceptual, cognitive, and social skills and their development.

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children&#039;s Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Young children do not passively observe the world, but rather actively explore and engage with their environment. This protocol provides guiding principles and practical recommendations for using head-mounted eye trackers to record infants' and toddlers' dynamic visual environments and visual attention in the context of natural behavior.

Young children's visual environments are dynamic, changing moment-by-moment as children physically and visually explore spaces and objects and interact ...

Simultaneous Eye Tracking and Single-Neuron Recordings in Human Epilepsy Patients

Intracranial recordings from patients with intractable epilepsy provide a unique opportunity to study the activity of individual human neurons during active behavior. An important tool for quantifying behavior is eye tracking, which is an indispensable tool for studying visual attention. However, eye tracking is challenging to use concurrently with invasive electrophysiology and this approach has consequently been little used. Here, we present a proven experimental protocol to conduct single-neuron recordings with simultaneous eye tracking in humans. We describe how the systems are connected and the optimal settings to record neurons and eye movements. To illustrate the utility of this method, we summarize results that were made possible by this setup. This data shows how using eye tracking in a memory-guided visual search task allowed us to describe a new class of neurons called target neurons, whose response was reflective of top-down attention to the current search target. Lastly, we discuss the significance and solutions to potential problems of this setup. Together, our protocol and results suggest that single-neuron recordings with simultaneous eye tracking in humans are an effective method to study human brain function. It provides a key missing link between animal neurophysiology and human cognitive neuroscience.

We describe a method to conduct single-neuron recordings with simultaneous eye tracking in humans. We demonstrate the utility of this method and illustrate how we used this approach to obtain neurons in the human medial temporal lobe that encode targets of a visual search.

Intracranial recordings from patients with intractable epilepsy provide a unique opportunity to study the activity of individual human neurons during ...

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity

This experimental protocol was designed to investigate whether visual attention is obligatorily deployed at the endpoint of saccades. To this end, we recorded the eye position of human participants engaged in a saccade task via eye tracking and assessed visual orientation discrimination performance at various locations during saccade preparation. Importantly, instead of using a single saccade target paradigm for which the saccade endpoint typically coincides roughly with the target, this protocol comprised the presentation of two nearby saccade targets, leading to a distinct spatial dissociation between target locations and saccade endpoint on a substantial number of trials. The paradigm allowed us to compare presaccadic visual discrimination performance at the endpoint of accurate saccades (landing at one of the saccade targets) and of averaging saccades (landing at an intermediate location in between the two targets). We observed a selective enhancement of visual sensitivity at the endpoint of accurate saccades but not at the endpoint of averaging saccades. Rather, before the execution of averaging saccades, visual sensitivity was equally enhanced at both targets, suggesting that saccade averaging follows from unresolved attentional selection among the saccade targets. These results argue against a mandatory coupling between visual attention and saccade programming based on a direct measure of presaccadic visual sensitivity rather than saccadic reaction times, which have been used in other protocols to draw similar conclusions. While our protocol provides a useful framework to investigate the relationship between visual attention and saccadic eye movements at the behavioral level, it can also be combined with electrophysiological measures to extend insights at the neuronal level.

This experimental protocol combined eye tracking and the assessment of presaccadic visual sensitivity in a dual task paradigm, consisting of a free choice saccade task and a visual discrimination task, to investigate the deployment of visual spatial attention before both, accurate and averaging saccades.

This experimental protocol was designed to investigate whether visual attention is obligatorily deployed at the endpoint of saccades. To this end, we ...

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Assessing infant category learning is a challenging but vital aspect of studying infant cognition. By employing a familiarization-test paradigm, we straightforwardly measure infants&#8217; success in learning a novel category while relying only on their looking behavior. Moreover, the paradigm can directly measure the impact of different auditory signals on the infant categorization across a range of ages. For instance, we assessed how 2-year-olds learn categories in a variety of labeling environments: in our task, 2-year-olds successfully learned categories when all exemplars were labeled&#160;or the first two exemplars were labeled, but they failed to categorize when no exemplars were labeled or only the final two exemplars were labeled. To determine infants&#8217; success in such tasks, researchers can examine both the overall preference displayed by infants in each condition and infants&#8217; pattern of looking over the course of the test phase, using an eye-tracker to provide fine-grained time-course data. Thus, we present a powerful paradigm for identifying the role of language, or any auditory signal, in infants&#8217; object category learning.

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants&#039; Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Here we present a protocol for familiarization-test paradigms which provide a direct test of infant categorization and help to define the role of language in early category learning.

Assessing infant category learning is a challenging but vital aspect of studying infant cognition. By employing a familiarization-test paradigm, we ...

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

We discuss the use of the preferential looking paradigm in eye tracking studies in order to study how infants develop, understand, and attend to the world around them. Eye tracking is a safe and non-invasive way to collect gaze data from infants, and the preferential looking paradigm is simple to design and only requires the infant to be attending to the screen. By simultaneously showing two visual stimuli that differ in one dimension, we can assess whether infants show different looking behavior for either stimulus, thus demonstrating sensitivity to that difference. The challenges in such experimental approaches are that experiments must be kept brief (no more than 10 min) and be carefully controlled such that the two stimuli differ in only one way. The interpretation of null results must also be carefully considered. In this paper, we illustrate a successful example of an infant eye tracking study with a preferential looking paradigm to discover that 6-month-olds are sensitive to linguistic cues in a signed language despite having no prior exposure to signed language, suggesting that infants possess intrinsic or innate sensitivities to these cues.

Eye tracking studies using a preferential looking paradigm can be used to study infants&#39;&#160;emerging understanding of, and attention to, their external visual world.

We discuss the use of the preferential looking paradigm in eye tracking studies in order to study how infants develop, understand, and attend to the world ...