Human gaze is precisely aligned with the foveolar cone topography of both eyes

The small physical depression of the human retina, termed fovea, is the functional center of human vision, providing an acute sense of visual space and color, but it is yet unclear if the exact arrangement of the few thousand photoreceptors at the foveal center is relevant for visual behavior. By employing adaptive optics in vivo imaging and micro-stimulation, we created complete topographical maps of the foveolar cone mosaics in both eyes of 20 healthy participants while simultaneously recording the exact retinal location of a fixated visual object in a psychophysical experiment. We found that the locus of fixation was systematically shifted away from the topographical centers towards a naso-superior quadrant of the foveolea in both eyes, thereby creating an enlarged binocular area of visual space sampled by high density cones. This demonstrates a finely tuned link between the development of the cellular arrangement of the photoreceptors of the foveola and visual behavior.