Short-term adaptation of eye movements in patients with visual hemifield defects indicates high level control of human scanpath.

In continuation of earlier studies, we recorded gaze movements in patients with hemianopic visual field defects primarily due to stroke. Use of high resolution infrared oculography enabled us to record and analyze a variety of tasks including paradigms of visual search, reading, and scanpath eye movements. The tasks were recorded several times in sequential order. Through these sequences, we observed short-term adaptation, i.e., training effects of eye movement strategies to improve the initially deficient results on the side of the blind hemifield with respect to the relative difficulty of the specific task. This quantitative and statistically confirmed finding adds new evidence for the top-down control of the human scanpath even in hemianopic patients.