Biology subjects

Hayhoe, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Hayhoe, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Blinks are strategically coupled with head movements in unconstrained natural gaze behavior

Blinks are a ubiquitous yet largely unnoticed aspect of human vision, despite causing frequent interruptions of visual input that can amount to up to 10% of waking time. By leveraging a large dataset of unconstrained gaze behavior during two natural tasks, we found a novel behavioral strategy to limit the impact of blinks: blinks were strategically coupled with head movements, which minimizes information loss due to unreliable visual input during head movements. Specifically, blink probability increased with higher head velocities and showed strong temporal modulation relative to head movement onset: Blink probability was reduced before head movement initiation and then peaked during the head movement. The strength of this coupling was tailored to the individual needs of participants, with participants with higher baseline blink showing a stronger synchronization. This indicates that blinks are a part of an individually coordinated strategy when orchestrating eye and head movements during unconstrained natural behavior.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

The Role of Retinal Flow in Walking

Both visual direction and optic flow have been implicated in walking towards a goal, in experiments that use prisms to alter visual direction. However, prisms bias retinal flow patterns in ways that may affect balance. This will alter foot placement, and indirectly, a walkers path. We used a prism manipulation in virtual reality for goal-directed walking, where we manipulated the location of texture-defined flow as well as direction of gaze. The addition of texture straightened paths, but primarily when it provided flow on the ground plane. Texture only on the ground produced straightening comparable to full-scene texture, whereas wall-only texture produced little straightening. This reveals a disproportionate contribution of motion generated on the ground plane to control locomotion, potentially reflecting higher retinal speeds and the prism-induced rotations in the lower visual field. This suggests that, when visual direction is manipulated by a prism, trajectories might result from unexpected motion patterns that activate a balance response, leading to compensatory foot placement. Thus trajectories may be shaped by complex interactions between goal direction, gaze, and local retinal motion patterns.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Integrating Gaze, image analysis, and body tracking: Foothold selection during locomotion.

Relatively little is known about the way vision is used to guide locomotion in the natural world. What visual features are used to choose paths in natural complex terrain? To answer this question, we measured eye and body movements while participants walked in natural outdoor environments. We incorporated measurements of the 3D terrain structure into our analyses and reconstructed the terrain along the walkers path, applying photogrammetry techniques to the eyetrackers scene camera videos. Combining these reconstructions with the walkers body movements, we demonstrate that walkers take terrain structure into account when selecting paths through an environment. We find that they change direction to avoid taking steeper steps that involve large height changes, instead of choosing more circuitous, relatively flat paths. Our data suggest walkers plan the location of individual footholds and plan ahead to select flatter paths. These results provide evidence that locomotor behavior in natural environments is controlled by decision mechanisms that account for multiple factors, including sensory and motor information, costs, and path planning.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Behavior shapes retinal motion statistics during natural locomotion

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWWalking through an environment generates retinal motion, which humans rely on to perform a variety of visual tasks. Retinal motion patterns are determined by an interconnected set of factors, including gaze location, gaze stabilization, the structure of the environment, and the walkers goals. The characteristics of these motion signals have important consequences for neural organization and behavior. However, to date, there are no empirical in situ measurements of how combined eye and body movements interact with real 3D environments to shape the statistics of retinal motion signals. Here, we collect measurements of the eyes, the body, and the 3D environment during locomotion. We describe properties of the resulting retinal motion patterns. We explain how these patterns are shaped by gaze location in the world, as well as by behavior, and how they may provide a template for the way motion sensitivity and receptive field properties vary across the visual field.

neuroscience↗