| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 15, 2013 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 15, 2013 |
| Award Number: | 1261433 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Kurt Thoroughman
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2013 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $549,786.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $549,786.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 PROSPECT ST PROVIDENCE RI US 02912-9100 (401)863-2777 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Office of Sponsored Projects Providence RI US 02912-9093 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Cognitive Neuroscience |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Humans are highly visual animals and our daily experiences, memories, and dreams are dominated by our visual sense. To create the continuous and seamless visual experience, humans explore their environment by making three to four eye fixations every second, each followed by a rapid saccadic eye movement to the next object of interest. However, most experiments on vision are conducted with research participants trained to keep their eyes still to remove these saccadic eye movements. Such an approach may not tell us in full how vision works in its naturalistic context where eyes are freely moving. In this project, Dr. Michael Paradiso of Brown University will use single unit recording from monkeys when they make visual decisions about objects appearing during or just after saccadic eye movements. The data are expected to reveal how eye movements alter visual processing and how the brain is able to parse the neural continuum into discrete perceptual block using signals associated with saccades. These experiments are innovative in their integration of behavioral testing in naturalistic paradigms with brain recordings using leading edge multi-electrode technology. The researcher aims to bridge the gap between basic research and our understanding of human visual experience in the real world.
Numerous disorders ranging from autism, to dyslexia and schizophrenia exhibit abnormal eye movements. At the present it is unclear how the abnormal eye movements are involved in the disorder, but the proposed project will provide critical data that can serve as a foundation for further studies targeted at specific disorders. Through the project, the researcher will continue to give lectures to K-12 students, collaborate with K-12 teachers on science instruction, and host a discussion group in Brown's Catalyst Program for incoming minority students at Brown University. Finally, Dr. Paradiso will participate in the big data effort by making the data available to support other coordinated NSF efforts that aim to make use of real data in the teaching of STEM related courses and to enable participation in discovery science by those who would otherwise have no access to such data.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Approximately three times per second, human visual perception is interrupted by a rapid saccadic eye movement. In addition to taking the eyes to a new location, several lines of evidence suggest that the saccades play important roles in visual perception. Indeed, it has been found that vision is impossible without eye movements. This research project investigated the roles that saccadic eye movements have on visual perception and the coding of visual information in the brain. Central to the study were two hypotheses for the roles of saccades: that they are essential for our sense of visual stability when the eyes move and that they synchronize brain activity to optimize and speed visual recognition of objects. To serve these functions, areas of the brain involved in visual perception must be informed about the timing and direction of saccadic eye movements. The study documented the precise information about saccade time and direction that is found in electrical signals present in primary visual cortex. The nature of these signals is such that they could subserve the hypothesized roles in visual stability and perceptual optimization. An additional component of visual stability, which was studied, is saccadic suppression. It was found that the perceptual suppression of visual input during saccades is accompanied by powerful and consistent changes in brain activity. In addition to the importance of the research for the understanding of vision and brain function, the findings have implications for clinical practice. For example, sensitivity to visual contrast is an important clinical measure of visual function. The experiments discovered that contrast sensitivity is influenced by eye movements and normal visuo-motor behavior. Thus, the research results suggest ways that clinical tests might be conducted that would give more accurate estimates of normal visual function outside the clinic.
Last Modified: 03/07/2019
Modified by: Michael A Paradiso
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