Walsh & Hoyt: Fixation

Summary. Visual fixation consists of three types of miniature movements: microdrift, microsaccades, and microtremor. Attentive fixation controls slow drift and suppresses microsaccades. Several cerebral areas are engaged in fixation. Area 7 of the parietal lobe is active in attending to the target. The supplementary eye field (SEF) participates in maintaining fixation with the eyes in specific regions of the orbit and inhibiting visually evoked saccades. The lateral prefrontal cortex contains neurons that have increased activity during fixation and neurons that appear to suppress unwanted saccades in monkeys. The FEF participates in disengaging fixation.