Definition
Saccades are rapid, abrupt, conjugate eye movements that redirect the fovea to new areas of interest (AOI) in the visual field.
Current Knowledge
The execution of a single saccade takes 30 ms, but it can vary between 20 and 100 ms, depending on the angular distance traveled by the eye. During this interval, the eyes can move at a speed of 900° per second. Head-fixed saccades have amplitudes ranging between 1.2 and 90°; head movements tend to accompany saccades with amplitudes >20°. Saccades are ballistic movements whose trajectory cannot be changed during execution.
Saccades facilitate collection of high-resolution information from different parts of a visual scene and information integration over a sequence of fixations. Between two consecutive saccades, the eyes fixate an AOI, which is processed at a higher resolution. Vision is attenuated during the execution of a saccade (saccadic suppression) to prevent blurred vision.
Extraocular muscles control saccades. Premotor...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References and Readings
Ashe, J., Hain, T. C., Zee, D. S., & Schatz, N. J. (1991). Microsaccadic flutter. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 114(Pt 1B), 461–472.
Grainger, J., Midgley, K. J., & Holcomb, P. J. (2016). Trans-saccadic repetition priming: ERPs reveal on-line integration of information across words. Neuropsychologia, 80, 201–211.
Huber-Huber, C., Ditye, T., Fernández, M. M., & Ansorge, U. (2016). Using temporally aligned event-related potentials for the investigation of attention shifts prior to and during saccades. Neuropsychologia, 92, 129–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.03.035.
Leigh, R. J., & Zee, D. S. (2006). The neurology of eye movements. New York: Oxford University Press.
Liversedge, S. P., & Findlay, J. M. (2000). Saccadic eye movements and cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(1), 6–14.
Rucker, J. C., Shapiro, B. E., Han, Y. H., Kumar, A. N., Garbutt, S., Keller, E. L., et al. (2004). Neuro-ophthalmology of late-onset Tay-Sachs disease (LOTS). Neurology, 63(10), 1918–1926.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Ebner, N.C., Gulliford, D., Yumusak, S. (2016). Saccadic Eye Movements. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1400-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1400-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences