Microsaccades generated during car driving

Microsaccades together with drift and tremor are fixational eye movements that are generated when we try to fixate our gaze on a visual target. Besides their function in vision to prevent neural adaptation to unchanging retinal image, microsaccades have been studied in neuroscience as an indicator of attentional states for the last decade. Most of microsaccade researches have been conducted in unnatural laboratory environments, using controlled artificial visual stimuli. Thus, little is known about the characteristics of microsaccades in natural viewing conditions. Here we attempted to evaluate microsaccades during car driving condition in the aim of estimating driver's spatial attention. We demonstrate that microsaccades are generated during car driving, and the rate of microsaccade generation is modulated by road conditions such as appearance of pedestrians or/and other cars.