Study of the Effect of Optical Imaging Blur on Microsaccadic Eye Movements

Objective:To compare the differences of behavioural characteristics of human microsaccadic eye movements between under normal refractive imaging state and optical imaging blur,and to explore the effect of abnormal visual experience on microsaccadic eye movements.Methods:Thirteen subjects with corrected normal or normal vision were recruited from the outpatient clinic at Tianjin Eye Hospital from January to March 2011.They were tested respectively under normal optical imaging state(group Nd for dominant eyes and group Bn for non-dominant eyes) and optical imaging blur state with-3.00D glass(group Bd for dominant eyes and group Nn for non-dominant eyes).A high-speed eye movement recording system was used to monocular record the fixational eye movements of subjects'both eyes.A Matlab routine was used to detect and analyze the microsaccadic components of eye movement waveforms.The microsaccadic amplitudes,peak velocities,occurrence rates,inter-microsaccadic intervals of all groups were analyzed and compared using Origin8.0 and Matlab2008 statistical toolbox.Results:There were no significant differences in mean microsaccadic amplitudes between all groups.The mean peak velocities were slower in groups Bd and Bn than those of groups Nd and Nn.The mean occurrence rates were less in groups Bd and Bn than those of groups Nd and Nn.The mean inter-microsaccadic intervals were longer in groups Bd and Bn than those of groups Nd and Nn.There were no significant differences in peak velocity,occurrence rate and inter-microsaccadic interval under two imaging states between dominant eyes and non-dormant eyes.Conclusion:High-speed eye-movement recording could provide useful assistance in evaluation of the visual quality and for exploring the relationship between visual perception and eye-movement behaviors.