Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain, and Consciousness (GIMBC), Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Brain and Consciousness Research Center (BCRC), TMU-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Department of Anesthesiology, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City, Taiwan; Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Biol Psychol. 2021 Oct;165:108202. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108202. Epub 2021 Oct 9.
Microsaccade is a type of fixational eye movements that is modulated by various sensory and cognitive processes, and impact our visual perception. Although studies in monkeys have demonstrated a functional role for the superior colliculus and frontal eye field (FEF) in controlling microsaccades, our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the generation of microsaccades is still limited. By applying continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) over the right FEF and the vertex, we investigated the role of the FEF in generating human microsaccade responses evoked by salient stimuli or by changes in background luminance. We observed higher microsaccade rates prior to target appearance, and larger rebound in microsaccade occurrence following salient stimuli, when disruptive cTBS was applied over FEF compared to vertex stimulation. Moreover, the microsaccade direction modulation after changes in background luminance was disrupted with FEF stimulation. Together, our results constitute the first evidence of FEF modulation in human microsaccade responses.
微扫视是一种固视眼动，受各种感觉和认知过程的调节，影响我们的视觉感知。尽管猴子的研究表明上丘和额眼区（FEF）在控制微扫视方面具有功能作用，但我们对产生微扫视的神经机制的理解仍然有限。通过在右侧 FEF 和头顶施加连续 theta 爆发刺激（cTBS），我们研究了 FEF 在产生由显著刺激或背景亮度变化引起的人类微扫视反应中的作用。与头顶刺激相比，当在 FEF 上施加破坏性 cTBS 时，我们观察到在目标出现之前微扫视的速率更高，并且在显著刺激后微扫视的反弹更大。此外，背景亮度变化后的微扫视方向调制受到 FEF 刺激的破坏。总之，我们的结果构成了 FEF 调节人类微扫视反应的第一个证据。
