The eyes are always in motion, even when they seem at rest, and can reveal a lot of information about the dynamism of the brain. That is why they have long been an object of investigation in neuroscience to measure cognitive activity. A study published in Network Neuroscience falls within this field of research with, among its authors, professors Uri Hasson and Giuseppe Notaro of the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences of UniTrento, and Cemal Koba, a graduate of the Master's in Cognitive Sciences of the University of Trento.
The relationship between eye movements and brain injuries and various forms of autism and schizophrenia has long been demonstrated, but now the work of Hasson and Notaro of the University of Trento, as part of an international scientific collaboration, explores this relationship in more depth including neuronal connectivity and opens future perspectives to better interpret MRI data and to diagnose disorders at an early stage.
"In our experimental study we traced the eye movement of people staring at the center of a screen with minimal glances," they say.
"From the analysis of their MRI scans, we found that small spontaneous eye movements were associated with parameters of the brain activity of the areas responsible for sight and movement and that they caused different degrees of connectivity and coordination ability between the affected areas".
The contribution of the study published in the journal Network Neuroscience - explain Uri Hasson and Giuseppe Notaro - consists in having identified a key to interpret MRI data in a different way.
As for future research developments, they mention the research applied to the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia. "This type of research studies - they say - require continuity of work for the next 3-5 years".
About the article
The article "Spontaneous eye-movements during eyes-open rest reduce resting-state-network modularity by increasing visual-sensorimotor connectivity" was written by: Uri Hasson, Corresponding Author, and Giuseppe Notaro (Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento) with Cemal Koba, first author, (IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca), Sandra Tamm and Gustav Nilsonne (Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden).