Teaching Experiment

Human Electro-oculography (EOG)

In this experiment, you will investigate eye movements by recording an electro-oculogram. Written by staff of ADInstruments.

Background
The vertebrate eye is an important sensory organ that converts light energy into nerve impulses. In humans, the position of the eyes in the front of the head creates overlapping visual fields, which results in stereovision. Eye movements are controlled by a number of small muscles that insert onto the eyeball; the extrinsic eye muscles. These muscles allow the eyes to either track moving ob ects or fixate on stationary ones as the head moves. !"a#e-shifting$ is a reflex mechanism that moves the eyes in an attempt to keep the image focused on the fovea, the part of the retina with the highest density of photoreceptors and hence, greatest visual acuity. Tracking movements of the eye are either slow or rapid, depending on the movement of the ob ect being tracked. %low tracking movements &'(-)( *#+ allow us to track distant moving ob ects and slow-moving near ob ects. ,hen the ob ect being tracked is moving rapidly, the tracking movements of the eye become rapid &-(( *# or more+ and ump back and forth. These erky, rapid movements are called saccades. ,hen you read text from a book, saccades occur as you reach the end of one line and move to the next one. Eye movements are also controlled via reflexes linked to the vestibular system. .ystagmus, a rapid, erking eye movement, occurs when the head moves rapidly and the eyes move in response to the moving fluid in the vestibular system. .ystagmus is often accompanied by a feeling of disorientation or vertigo. Eye movements can be recorded using electrodes placed on the skin near the eyes. This kind of recording is called an electro-oculogram &E/"+. 0n E/" records eye movement because of a voltage difference between the cornea and retina. 0s the eye moves, the vector of this electric field changes with respect to recording electrodes placed on the skin at fixed points. The E/" can also be used to measure the response of the retina to light. The current produced by the retina changes in intensity depending on the amount of light that enters the eye, and this will affect the intensity of the E/" signal given a constant eye movement. 1ecause the E/" will be modified by light intensity and eye movement, one of these variables is held constant during a measurement.

Required Equipment
0 computer system 2hart software, version 3.( or later 4ower5ab E/" 4od %hielded snap-on 5ead ,ires 6isposable pre-gelled E2" electrodes Electrode 2ream 0 book or a page of text for reading 7eter stick or tape measure 2olored chalk or tape 1allpoint pen

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Procedures
A !et up and cali"ration o# equipment
!u"$ect preparation
8. 2hoose a member of your lab group to participate in the experiment. 9. :sing a ballpoint pen, mark the areas on the skin for electrode placement as shown in ;igure 8. '. 5ightly abrade the skin over the marks with an abrasive pad. ). 4eel off the backing of one of the disposable, pre-gelled E2" electrodes. 4lace a very small amount of electrode cream on the gelled surface of the electrode, and adhere the electrode over one of the marked areas on the volunteer. <epeat for the other two electrodes. 3. 2onnect the lead wires to the sub ect with the snap-on connectors as shown in ;igure 8.

Figure 1. Connecting the EOG lead wires.

Equipment set-up
=. 2onnect three shielded lead wires to the rear of the E/" 4od &;igure 9+. >. 4lug the E/" 4od into the 4od 4ort on Input 8 of the 4ower5ab. ?. 7ake sure the 4ower5ab is connected to your computer and turned on. -. %tart 2hart 3 from your computer. 0fter 2hart initiali#es, open the settings file called !E/" settings$. @our instructor will inform you as to the location of this file. 0fter a few moments, 2hart should display a blank data file with one channel labeled !E/"$.

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Figure 2. The back of the EOG Pod, showing lead wire connections.

%ali"ration
8(. In the 2hart Aiew window, click the E/" 2hannel ;unction pull-down menu and select ! EOG Pod$. 88. The E/" 4od dialog box will appear. 89. *ave the volunteer fix their ga#e on a point directly in front of them. 8'. :sing the knob on the front of the E/" 4od, ad ust the signal so that it #eroes in the dialog box. 8). ,hen the E/" 4od is successfully #eroed, click /B. 83. Note: The E/" 4od is a !62 coupled$ device. This means that the signal is prone to drift. @ou may need to occasionally re-#ero the E/" 4od before each exercise.

B Recogni&ing arti#acts in the EOG

1ecause the E/" electrodes are on the skin surface, it is important to recogni#e signal artifacts and distinguish them from the actual E/" signal. Eye blinks are unavoidable, and will alter the E/" signal from that of tracking movements. It is also possible to record electromyograph &E7"+ signals from muscles in the face. 8. 2lick %tart and begin recording. 9. 4repare a comment called !blink$ by typing into the comment field in the 2hart Aiew window. 6o not press the return key. '. *ave the sub ect blink several times, and enter the comment into your recording by pressing the return key. ). 4repare a comment called !E7"$. 3. *ave the sub ect clench their teeth together for several seconds, and enter the comment. =. 2lick %top. >. /bserve the data trace to become familiar with these two artifact signals.

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E'ercise () EOG and angular displacement
8. :sing a tape measure, mark the floor one meter from the wall. 9. *ave the volunteer sit comfortably so that their head is one meter from the wall, as you marked on the floor. '. 7ake temporary marks on the wall at the sub ectCs eye level with tape or chalk according to the measurements shown in ;igure '.

Figure 3.

uggested s!acing for 1"# $iewing angles at a distance of 1 %eter.

). *ave the sub ect look at the center mark directly in front of them. 3. 2lick %tart to begin recording. =. Enter a comment in your data trace called !slow tracking$. >. ,ithout turning their head, have the sub ect stare at the mark furthest to their left &(D+ for two to three seconds. 6uring this time, enter a comment called !($. ?. *ave the sub ect move their ga#e to each mark on the wall, from left to right, holding their ga#e for two seconds at each one. Enter a comment corresponding to the view angle each time the sub ect views another point. -. 2lick %top to end the recording.

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E'ercise *) !accades
%accades are fast tracking movements of the eye that are not smooth. The easiest way to observe saccades is to record E/" while the volunteer reads a page of text. 8. 2lick %tart to begin recording. 9. Enter a comment in your data file called !fast tracking$. '. *ave the sub ect read a paragraph from a book or sheet of paper. ). 2lick %top to end the recording.

E'ercise +) !mooth tracking

8. *ave the sub ect look straight ahead. *ave one member of your group hold a pen or pencil in front of the volunteer, about 3( cm away. 9. 2lick %tart to begin recording. '. Enter a comment called !smooth tracking$ into your recording. ). 7ove the pencil left and right slowly in front of the volunteer. The volunteer should fixate on the pencil without moving their head. 3. 2lick %top to end the recording.

E'ercise ,) -ystagmus
.ystagmus occurs when the eye responds reflexively to signals from the vestibular system. 8. 2lick %tart to begin your recording. 9. Enter a comment called !nystagmus$ in your data trace. '. *ave the volunteer look straight ahead at the center mark on the wall. ). .ext, have the volunteer turn their head rapidly from left to right while they try to maintain their ga#e on the center mark. 3. 2lick %top to end the recording.

Analysis
E'ercise () EOG and angular displacement
8. Select the block of data that contains the recording from the slow tracking exercise. 9. /pen the Zoom View by clicking the Eoom toolbar button. '. 4lace the Marker on the portion of the trace corresponding to the (D mark. ). 7ove the Waveform Cursor to each segment of the trace and record the E/" amplitude in Table 8 of your 6ata .otebook.

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E'ercise *) !accades
8. Select a portion of your data from Exercise 9 when the sub ect was reading. 9. /pen the Zoom View by clicking the Eoom toolbar button. '. @our data should look similar to that shown in ;igure ). ). 5ocate a single saccade in the data trace, and place the Marker at its start. 3. 7ove the Waveform Cursor to the end of the saccade. =. <ecord the duration of the saccade from the readout at the top of the Eoom Aiew window. >. <epeat this procedure for three additional saccades, and record all the durations in Table 9 of your 6ata .otebook. ?. 2alculate the average saccade duration and record the value in Table 9 of your 6ata .otebook.

Figure &.

accades during reading. 'ote the !osition of the (arker and )a$efor% Cursor.

E'ercise +) !mooth tracking

8. /bserve the data trace from Exercise '. 9. 5ook for evidence of saccades.

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E'ercise ,) -ystagmus
8. Select a portion of your data trace from Exercise ' and open the Zoom View window. 9. :sing the Marker and Waveform Cursor, determine the maximum E/" amplitude for movement in the left and right directions. '. If possible, locate a saccade in the trace and determine its duration as you did for Exercise 9. ). <ecord your results in Table ' of your 6ata .otebook.

.ata -ote"ook
/a"le ( EOG amplitude 0s 0ie1 angle 2ie1 angles are gi0en in 3igure +
Aiew 0ngle &degrees+ ( 83 '( )3 =( >3 -( E/" amplitude &mA+

/a"le * !accades during reading

4arameter %accade 8 %accade 9 %accade ' %accade ) 0verage saccade duration 6uration &ms+

/a"le + EOG parameters during nystagmus

4arameter 7aximum E/" amplitude to left 7aximum E/" amplitude to right %accade duration Aalue mA mA ms

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!tudy 4uestions
8. ,hy do you suppose it is important to recogni#e artifacts in your data traceF

9. ,as the recorded E/" signal proportional to eye movementF In other words, is the response linear over the range of eye movementF

'. ,hen you observed saccadic eye movements during reading, what activity do you suppose correlated with the largest responseF

). ,as there evidence of saccades during the slow tracking exerciseF If so, why do you suppose they occurredF

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