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Article

What Makes a Microsaccade? A Review of 70 Years of Research Prompts a New Detection Method

by
Anna-Katharina Hauperich
,
Laura K. Young
and
Hannah E. Smithson
University of Oxford, UK
J. Eye Mov. Res. 2019, 12(6), 1-22; https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.13
Submission received: 22 December 2018 / Published: 17 March 2020

Abstract

A new method for detecting microsaccades in eye-movement data is presented, following a review of reported microsaccade properties between the 1940s and today. The review focuses on the parameter ranges within which certain physical markers of microsaccades are thought to occur, as well as any features of microsaccades that have been stably reported over time. One feature of microsaccades, their binocularity, drives the new microsaccade detection method. The binocular correlation method for microsaccade detection is validated on two datasets of binocular eye-movements recorded using video-based systems: one collected as part of this study, and one from Nyström et al., 2017. Comparisons between detection methods are made using precision-recall statistics. This confirms that the binocular correlation method performs well when compared to manual coders and performs favourably compared to the commonly used Engbert & Kliegl (2003) method with subsequent modifications (Engbert & Mergenthaler, 2006). The binocular correlation microsaccade detection method is easy to implement and MATLAB code is made available to download.
Keywords: fixational eye movements; microsaccades; automated detection; eye tracking fixational eye movements; microsaccades; automated detection; eye tracking

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MDPI and ACS Style

Hauperich, A.-K.; Young, L.K.; Smithson, H.E. What Makes a Microsaccade? A Review of 70 Years of Research Prompts a New Detection Method. J. Eye Mov. Res. 2019, 12, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.13

AMA Style

Hauperich A-K, Young LK, Smithson HE. What Makes a Microsaccade? A Review of 70 Years of Research Prompts a New Detection Method. Journal of Eye Movement Research. 2019; 12(6):1-22. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.13

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hauperich, Anna-Katharina, Laura K. Young, and Hannah E. Smithson. 2019. "What Makes a Microsaccade? A Review of 70 Years of Research Prompts a New Detection Method" Journal of Eye Movement Research 12, no. 6: 1-22. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.13

APA Style

Hauperich, A.-K., Young, L. K., & Smithson, H. E. (2019). What Makes a Microsaccade? A Review of 70 Years of Research Prompts a New Detection Method. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(6), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.13

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