Eye movements are interesting for a number of reasons - they are important for visual perception, we only see fine detailed information when the eyes point directly at a location; we make more eye movements in a day than heart beats; and we have a detailed knowledge of the neurophysiology of eye movements control which allows us to link functional and neural explanations.
If the eyes are the window to the soul, psychologists hoping to solve the mystery of why our neural impulses do not always trigger an immediate response could find the answer in the flick of the eye. The reasons why the speed of human responses to a given event can be so variable - even in laboratory controlled conditions where determining factors such as alertness and vigilance are a constant - remain a mystery to scientists studying the connection between our brains and behaviour. For example, when driving the onset of a red traffic light does not always lead to as rapid a response as one might expect from a driver in pressing the brake. Now researchers from the University of Bristol are to provide a comprehensive account of response time variability, in a bid to explain at a functional level where the variability originates and what neural processes and anatomical structures are involved. Professor Iain Gilchrist from Bristol is a cognitive neuroscientist who has just been awarded a fellowship by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to explore the neural basis of response time variability. 'In my research group we focus on the study of the eye movement response,' says Prof Gilchrist, also Director of Bristol Neuroscience. 'Eye movements are interesting for a number of reasons.
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