Microsaccades Are Coupled to Heartbeat

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Sven OhlRalf Engbert

Abstract

During visual fixation, the eye generates microsaccades and slower components of fixational eye movements that are part of the visual processing strategy in humans. Here, we show that ongoing heartbeat is coupled to temporal rate variations in the generation of microsaccades. Using coregistration of eye recording and ECG in humans, we tested the hypothesis that microsaccade onsets are coupled to the relative phase of the R-R intervals in heartbeats. We observed significantly more microsaccades during the early phase after the R peak in the ECG. This form of coupling between heartbeat and eye movements was substantiated by the additional finding of a coupling between heart phase and motion activity in slow fixational eye movements; i.e., retinal image slip caused by physiological drift. Our findings therefore demonstrate a coupling of the oculomotor system and ongoing heartbeat, which provides further evidence for bodily influences on visuomotor functioning. In the present study, we show that microsaccades are coupled to heartbeat. Moreover, we revealed a strong modulation of slow eye movements around the R peak in the ECG. These results suggest that heartbeat as a basic physiological signal is related to statistical modulations...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 25, 2017·Psychophysiology·Christopher R MadanKyle E Mathewson
Nov 3, 2017·Current Opinion in Neurology·Jonathan J D Baird-Gunning, Christian J Lueck
Jun 16, 2018·Journal of Vision·Mehmet N AgaogluSusana T L Chung
Jan 9, 2019·Psychophysiology·Stella KunzendorfMichael Gaebler
Feb 8, 2020·Nature Communications·Hyeong-Dong ParkOlaf Blanke
Sep 6, 2020·Journal of Physiological Anthropology·Koji Kashihara
Apr 15, 2017·Behavior Research Methods·Antoine CoutrotAntoni B Chan
Sep 5, 2018·Scientific Reports·Christoph StrauchAnke Huckauf
Feb 15, 2021·International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology·Aleksandra M Herman, Manos Tsakiris
Feb 23, 2021·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Manos TsakirisRaffaele Tucciarelli
Feb 21, 2018·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Roy SalomonOlaf Blanke
Jun 11, 2021·NeuroImage·Esra AlArno Villringer

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