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Encyclopedia > Eye movements

Eye movements are the voluntary or involuntary movements of the eye. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Contents


Types

Eye movements are typically classified as either ductions, versions, or vergences.

  1. Ductions
  2. Versions
  3. Vergences

Yoked movements vs. antagnoistic movements

  • Hering's law of equal innervation
  • Sherrington's law of reciprocal innervation

Eyes are the structural organs that contain the retina, a specialized type of brain tissue that contains the photoreceptors and interneurons that convert light into electrochemical signals that travel along the fibers of the optic nerve to the brain. The visual system in the brain is too slow to process that information if the images are slipping across the retina at more than a few degrees per second (Westheimer and McKee, 1954). Thus, to be able to see while we are moving, the brain must compensate for the motion of the head by turning the eyes. Another complication for vision in frontal-eyed animals is the development of a small area of the retina with a very high visual acuity. This area is called the fovea, and covers about 2 degrees of visual angle in people. To get a clear view of the world, the brain must turn the eyes so that the image of the object of regard falls on the fovea. Eye movements are thus very important for visual perception, and any failure to make them correctly can lead to serious visual disabilities. To see a quick demonstration of this fact, try the following experiment: hold your hand up, about one foot (30 cm) in front of your nose. Keep your head still, and shake your hand from side to side, slowly at first, and then faster and faster. At first you will be able to see your fingers quite clearly. But as the frequency of shaking passes about one hertz, the fingers will become a blur. Now, keep your hand still, and shake your head (up and down or left and right). No matter how fast you shake your head, the image of your fingers remains clear. This demonstrates that the brain can move the eyes opposite to head motion much better than it can follow, or pursue, a hand movement. When your pursuit system fails to keep up with the moving hand, images slip on the retina and you see a blurred hand. Human eye cross-sectional view. ... Please help to figure out license type for the image Comparative brain sizes. For other articles about other subjects named brain see brain (disambiguation). ... The fovea, a part of the eye, is a spot located in the center of the macula. ... The hertz (symbol Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ...


Having two eyes is an added complication, because the brain must point both of them accurately enough that the object of regard falls on corresponding points of the two retinas; otherwise, we would see double. Before dealing with this problem, we shall discuss the movements of one eye alone, and restrict our discussion to primates (monkeys, apes and humans). The movements of different body parts are controlled by striated muscles acting around joints. The movements of the eye are no exception, but they have special advantages not shared by skeletal muscles and joints, and so are considerably different. First, the eye is not rigidly attached to anything, but is held in the orbit by six extraocular muscles. The muscle tension pulls the eye against a pad of fat at the back of the eye, so that when the muscles exert different tensions, a torque is exerted on the globe that causes it to turn. This is an almost pure rotation, with only about one millimeter of translation (Carpenter, 1988). thus, the eye can be considered as undergoing rotations about a single joint in the center of the eye. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... This article is about a joint in zootomical anatomy. ... In physics, an orbit is the path that an object makes, around another object, whilst under the influence of a source of centripetal force, such as gravity. ... The extraocular muscles are the six muscles that control the movements of the eye. ...


Four of the extraocular muscles have their origin in the back of the orbit in a fibrous ring called the zonule of Zinn. They then course forward through the orbit and insert onto the globe on its anterior half (i.e., in front of the eye's equator). These muscles are named after their straight paths, and are called the four rectus muscles, or four recti. They insert on the globe at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock, and are called the superior, lateral, inferior and medial rectus muscles. (Note that lateral and medial are relative to the subject, with lateral toward the side and medial toward the midline, thus the medial rectux is the muscle closest to the nose). The names are often abbreviated as the SR, LR, MR, and IR muscles, respectively. The other two extraocular muscles follow more complicated paths. The superior oblique (SO) muscle originates at the back of the orbit and courses forward to a rigid pulley, called the trochlea, on the upper, nasal wall of the orbit. The muscle passes through the pulley, turning sharply across the orbit, and inserts on the lateral, posterior part of the globe. Thus, the SO goes backward for the last part of its path, and even though it goes over the top of the eye, it pulls it downward and lateralward. The last muscle is the inferior oblique (IO), which originates at the lower front of the nasal orbital wall, and passes under the LR to insert on the lateral, posterior part of the globe. Thus, the IO pulls the eye upward and lateralward. The extraocular muscles are the six muscles that control the movements of the eye. ... A pulley is a wheel with a groove along its edge, for holding a rope or cable. ...


References

  • Roger H.S. Carpenter (1988); Movements of the Eyes (2nd ed.). Pion Ltd, London. ISBN: 0850861098.
  • Westheimer Gerald, McKee Suzanne P (1975); "Visual acuity in the presence of retinal-image motion". Journal of the Optical Society of America 65(7), 847-50.

See also

Rapid eye movement (REM) is the stage of sleep during which the most vivid (though not all) dreams occur. ... An eye tracker is a device for measuring eye positions and eye movements. ... Fixational eye movements (a. ... Microsaccades are a kind of fixational eye movement. ... Nystagmus is rapid involuntary rhythmic eye movement, with the eyes moving quickly in one direction (quick phase), and then slowly in the other (slow phase). ... Ocular tremor is eye tremor that assists vision. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Strabismus prevents bringing the gaze of both eyes to the same point in space Strabismus, also known as squint, crossed eye, wandering eye, or wall eyed, is a disorder in which the eyes do not point in the same direction. ...

External links

  • eMedicine - Extraocular Muscles, Actions

  Results from FactBites:
 
eye movements: Information from Answers.com (826 words)
Eye movement is the voluntary or involuntary movement of the eye.
Eyes are the structural organs that contain the retina, a specialized type of brain tissue that contains the photoreceptors and interneurons that convert light into electrochemical signals that travel along the fibers of the optic nerve to the brain.
The movements of the eye are slightly different in that the eyes not rigidly attached to anything, but are held in the orbit by six extraocular muscles.
Eye movement detector - Patent 4836670 (12870 words)
The eye movement detector of claim 2, wherein said illuminator also causes a glint reflection from the cornea of the eye with said computer determining the gaze point by the displacement between the location of said glint and location of said center of the pupil relative to one another.
The eye movement detector of claim 4, wherein said infrared light emitting semiconductor is a gallium arsenide diode emitting light of a wavelength in the approximate range of 900 nanometers.
The eye movement detector system is designed to permit activation of selected tasks from a display which functions as a computer control interface with the selection being made by eye gaze directed at a set of display driven menus in the form of icons, illustrations or boxes of written information.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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