A competitive integration model of exogenous and endogenous eye movements

We present a model of the eye movement system in which the programming of an eye movement is the result of the competitive integration of information in the superior colliculi (SC). This brain area receives input from occipital cortex, the frontal eye fields, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, on the basis of which it computes the location of the next saccadic target. Two critical assumptions in the model are that cortical inputs are not only excitatory, but can also inhibit saccades to specific locations, and that the SC continue to influence the trajectory of a saccade while it is being executed. With these assumptions, we account for many neurophysiological and behavioral findings from eye movement research. Interactions within the saccade map are shown to account for effects of distractors on saccadic reaction time (SRT) and saccade trajectory, including the global effect and oculomotor capture. In addition, the model accounts for express saccades, the gap effect, saccadic reaction times for antisaccades, and recorded responses from neurons in the SC and frontal eye fields in these tasks. © The Author(s) 2010

Vampires in the village Žrnovo on the island of Korčula: following an archival document from the 18th century

Središnja tema rada usmjerena je na raščlambu spisa pohranjenog u Državnom arhivu u Mlecima (fond: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) koji se odnosi na događaj iz 1748. godine u korčulanskom selu Žrnovo, kada su mještani – vjerujući da su se pojavili vampiri – oskvrnuli nekoliko mjesnih grobova. U radu se podrobno iznose osnovni podaci iz spisa te rečeni događaj analizira u širem društvenom kontekstu i prate se lokalna vjerovanja.The main interest of this essay is the analysis of the document from the State Archive in Venice (file: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) which is connected with the episode from 1748 when the inhabitants of the village Žrnove on the island of Korčula in Croatia opened tombs on the local cemetery in the fear of the vampires treating. This essay try to show some social circumstances connected with this event as well as a local vernacular tradition concerning superstitions

Eye Movements in Neuropsychological Tasks

This chapter reviews how recording and analysis of eye movements has been applied to understanding cognitive functioning in patients. Measures derived from the performance of instructed eye movement tests such as the anti-saccade and memory-guided saccade tasks have been shown to be associated with cognitive test performance and the early stages of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Other research has taken an ecological approach and recorded the uninstructed pattern of saccades made by patients during performance of established neuropsychological tasks. Studies that have analysed the eye movement strategies used in a number of widely used tests are reviewed, including the Corsi Blocks, Tower of London, ‘CANTAB’ Spatial Working Memory and Brixton Spatial Anticipation test. The findings illustrate that eye movements are not purely in the service of vision, but support visuo-spatial working memory and forward action planning. Eye movement tests and measures also have potential for application in the assessment and diagnosis of neurological disease and cognitive impairment. Establishing large scale normative datasets in healthy older adults and use of machine learning multi-variate classifier algorithms may be key to further developing eye tracking applications in neuropsychological assessment