Chamani Niloufar, Schmid Michael Christoph, Rima Samy
Department of Neuro- and Movement Sciences, Faculty of Science and Medicine, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2025 Feb 24;15(1):6546. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-83316-4.
Foveation, the ability to focus on a point for clear vision, is crucial for reading smoothly and tracking moving objects. Research shows that unstable foveation disrupts reading by causing more frequent eye movements. However, it's unclear if this also affects smooth tracking of moving targets in slow readers. This study therefore investigates the link between foveation during reading and the tracking of moving targets, in a large group of participants displaying variable reading speeds in a virtual reality environment. Our analysis shows that slower readers have more intrusive fixational eye movements characterized by greater spatial and temporal variability during reading. Additionally, these readers display less efficient tracking of moving targets. Interestingly, the rate and spatial variability of catch-up saccades during object tracking correlates with fixational eye movement rates and spatial variability during reading. Our findings thus demonstrate that poor foveation stability in slow readers also affects other eye movement activities, such as during object tracking. We conclude with a discussion on the limitations of virtual reality-based reading assessment and the shared mechanisms of foveal stabilization, which might be altered under conditions of reading impairment.
注视，即聚焦于一点以获得清晰视觉的能力，对于流畅阅读和追踪移动物体至关重要。研究表明，不稳定的注视会因导致更频繁的眼动而干扰阅读。然而，目前尚不清楚这是否也会影响阅读速度较慢者对移动目标的平稳追踪。因此，本研究在虚拟现实环境中，对一大群阅读速度各异的参与者进行了调查，以探究阅读过程中的注视与移动目标追踪之间的联系。我们的分析表明，阅读速度较慢者在阅读过程中具有更多侵入性的注视性眼动，其特征在于更大的空间和时间变异性。此外，这些读者对移动目标的追踪效率较低。有趣且的是，物体追踪过程中追赶性扫视的速度和空间变异性与阅读过程中的注视性眼动速度以及空间变异性相关。因此，我们的研究结果表明，阅读速度较慢者的注视稳定性较差也会影响其他眼动活动，例如在物体追踪过程中。我们最后讨论了基于虚拟现实的阅读评估的局限性以及中央凹稳定的共同机制，这些机制可能在阅读障碍的情况下发生改变。
