Podcasts about saccades

Dysfunction of the supranuclear ocular motor pathways typically causes highly localizable deficits. With sophisticated neuroimaging, it is critical to better understand structure-function relationships and precisely localize pathology within the brain. In this episode, Lyell K. Jones Jr, MD, FAAN, speaks with Gregory P. Van Stavern, MD, author of the article “Supranuclear Disorders of Eye Movements” in the Continuum® April 2025 Neuro-ophthalmology issue. Dr. Jones is the editor-in-chief of Continuum: Lifelong Learning in Neurology® and is a professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Van Stavern is the Robert C. Drews professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. Additional Resources Read the article: Internuclear and Supranuclear Disorders of Eye Movements Subscribe to Continuum®: shop.lww.com/Continuum Earn CME (available only to AAN members): continpub.com/AudioCME Continuum® Aloud (verbatim audio-book style recordings of articles available only to Continuum® subscribers): continpub.com/Aloud More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme @ContinuumAAN Host: @LyellJ Full episode transcript available here Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio. Be sure to visit the links in the episode notes for information about earning CME, subscribing to the journal, and exclusive access to interviews not featured on the podcast. Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum: Lifelong Learning in Neurology. Today I'm interviewing Dr Gregory Van Stavern, who recently authored an article on intranuclear and supranuclear disorders of eye movements for our latest Continuum issue on neuro-ophthalmology. Dr Van Stavern is the Robert C Drews professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University in Saint Louis. Dr Van Stavern, welcome, and thank you for joining us today. Why don't you introduce yourself to our audience? Dr Van Stavern: Hi, my name is Gregory Van Stavern. I'm a neuro-ophthalmologist located in Saint Louis, and I'm pleased to be on this show today. Dr Jones: We appreciate you being here, and obviously, any discussion of the visual system is worthwhile. The visual system is important. It's how most of us and most of our patients navigate the world. Roughly 40% of the brain---you can correct me if I'm wrong---is in some way assigned to our visual system. But it's not just about the sensory experience, right? The afferent visual processing. We also have motor systems of control that align our vision and allow us to accurately direct our vision to visual targets of interest. The circuitry is complex, which I think is intimidating to many of us. It's much easier to see a diagram of that than to describe it on a podcast. But I think this is a good opportunity for us to talk about the ocular motor exam and how it helps us localize lesions and, and better understand diagnoses for certain disorders. So, let's get right to it, Dr Van Stavern. If you had from your article, which is outstanding, a single most important message for our listeners about recognizing or treating patients with ocular motor disorders, what would that message be? Dr Van Stavern: Well, I think if we can basically zoom out a little to the big picture, I think it really emphasizes the continuing importance of the examination. History as well, but the examination. I was reading an article the other day that was essentially downplaying the importance of the physical examination in the modern era with modern imaging techniques and technology. But for neurology, and especially neuro-ophthalmology, the history and the examination should still drive clinical decision-making. And doing a careful assessment of the ocular motor system should be able to tell you exactly where the lesion is located, because it's very easy to order a brain MRI, but the MRI is, like Forrest Gump might say, it's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to find. You may find a lot of things, but because you've done the history and the examination, you can see if whatever lesion is uncovered by the MRI is the lesion that explains what's going on with the patient. So even today, even with the most modern imaging techniques we have, it is still really important to know what you're looking for. And that's where the oculomotor examination can be very helpful. Dr Jones: I did not have Forrest Gump on my bingo card today, Dr Van Stavern, but that's a really good analogy, right? If you order the MRI, you don't know what you're going to get. And then- and if you don't have a really well-formed question, then sometimes you get misleading information, right?  Dr Van Stavern: Exactly. Dr Jones: We'll get into some technology here in a minute, because I think that's relevant for this discussion. I think most of our listeners are going to agree with us that the exam is important in neuro-ophthalmology, and neurology broadly. So, I think you have some sympathetic listeners there. Again, the point of the exam is to localize and then lead to a diagnosis that we can help patients with. When you think about neurologic disorders where the ocular motor exam helps you get to the right diagnosis, obviously disorders of eye movements, but sometimes it's a clue to a broader neurologic syndrome. And you have some nice discussions in your article about the ocular motor clues to Parkinson disease or to progressive supranuclear palsy. Tell us a little more about that. In your practice, which neurologic disorders do you find the ocular motor exam being most helpful? Dr Van Stavern: Well, just a very brief digression. So, I started off being an ophthalmology resident, and I do two years of ophthalmology and then switch to neurology. And during neurology residency, I was debating which subspecialty to go into, and I realized that neuro-ophthalmology touches every other subspecialty in neurology. And it goes back to the fact that the visual system is so pervasive and widely distributed throughout the brain. So, if you have a neurologic disease, there is a very good chance it is going to affect vision, maybe in a minor way or a major way. That's why careful assessment of the visual system, and particularly the oculomotor system, is really helpful for many neurologic diseases. Neuromuscular disease, obviously, myasthenia gravis and certain myopathies affect the eye movements. Neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Parkinson's disease and parkinsonian conditions, often affect the eye movements. And in particular, when you're trying to differentiate, is this classic Parkinson's disease? Or is this progressive supranuclear palsy? Is it some broad spectrum multisystem atrophy? The differences between the eye movement disorders, even allowing for the fact that there's overlap, can really help point in one direction to the other, and again, prevent unnecessary testing, unnecessary treatment, and so on. Dr Jones: Very good. And I think, to follow on a thread from that concept with patients who have movement disorders, in my practice, seeing older patients who have a little bit of restriction of vertical gaze is not that uncommon. And it's more common in patients who have idiopathic Parkinson disease. And then we use that part of the exam to help us screen patients for other neurodegenerative syndromes like progressive nuclear- supranuclear palsy. So, do you have any tips for our listeners to- how to look at, maybe, vertical gaze and say, this is maybe a normal age-related degree of change. This is something that might suggest idiopathic Parkinson disease. Or maybe something a little more progressive and sinister like progressive super nuclear palsy? Dr Van Stavern: Well, I think part of the issue- and it's harder to do this without the visual aspect. One of my colleagues always likes to say for a neurologist, the eye movement exam begins and ends with the neurology benediction, just doing the sign of the cross and checking the eye movements. And that's a good place to start. But I think it's important to remember that all you're looking at is smooth pursuit and range of eye movements, and there's much more to the oculomotor examination than that. There's other aspects of eye movement. Looking at saccades can be really helpful; in particular, classically, saccadic movements are selectively abnormal in PSP versus Parkinson's with progressive supranuclear palsy. Saccades, which are essentially rapid movements of the eyes---up and down, in this case---are going to be affected in downward gaze. So, the patient is going to have more difficulty initiating downward saccades, slower saccades, and less range of movement of saccades in downgaze. Whereas in Parkinson's, it's classically upward eye movements and upgaze. So, I think that's something you won't be able to see if you're just doing, looking at, you know, your classic, look at your eye movements, which are just assessing, smooth pursuit. Looking carefully at the eye movements during fixation can be helpful. Another aspect of many parkinsonian conditions is saccadic intrusions, where there's quick movements or saccades of the eye that are interrupting fixation. Much, much more common in PSP than in Parkinson's disease. The saccadic intrusions are what we call square-wave jerks because of what they look like. Eye movement recordings are much larger amplitude in PSP and other multisystem atrophy diseases than with Parkinson's. And none of these are perfect differentiators, but the constellation of those findings, a patient with slow downwards saccades, very large amplitude, and frequent saccadic intrusions might point you more towards this being PSP rather than Parkinson's. Dr Jones: That's a great pearl, thinking about the saccades in addition to the smooth pursuit. So, thank you for that. And you mentioned eye movement measurements. I think it's simultaneously impressive and a little scary that my phone can tell when I'm looking at it within a few degrees of visual attention. So, I imagine there are automated tools to analyze eye movement. Tell us, what's the state of the art there, and what should our listeners be aware of in terms of tools that are available and what they can and can't do? Dr Van Stavern: Well, I could tell you, I mean, I see neuro-ophthalmic patients with eye movement disorders every day and we do not have any automated tools for eye movement. We have a ton of imaging techniques for imaging the optic nerve and the retina in different ways, but we don't routinely employ eye movement recording devices. The only time we usually do that is in somebody where we suspect they have a central or peripheral vestibular disease and we send them for vestibular testing, for eye movement recordings. There is interest in using- I know, again, sort of another digression, but if you're looking at the HINTS technique, which is described in the chapter to differentiate central from peripheral disease, which is a very easy, useful way to differentiate central from peripheral or peripheral vestibular disease. And again, in the acute setting, is this a stroke or not a stroke? Is it the brain or is it the inner ear? Part of the problem is that if you're deploying this widespread, the people who are doing it may not be sufficiently good enough at doing the test to differentiate, is a positive or negative test? And that's where some people have started introducing this into the emergency room, these eye movement recording devices, to give the- using, potentially, AI and algorithms to help the emergency room physicians say, all right, this looks like a stroke, we need to admit the patient, get an MRI and so on, versus, this is vestibular neuritis or an inner ear problem, treat them symptomatically, follow up as an outpatient. That has not yet been widely employed. It's a similar way that a lot of institutions are having fundus photography and OCT devices placed in the emergency room to aid the emergency room physician for patients who present with acute vision issues. So, I think that could be the future. It probably would be something that would be AI-assisted or AI-driven. But I can tell you at least at our institution and most of the ones I know of, it is not routinely employed yet. Dr Jones: So maybe on the horizon, AI kind of facilitated tools for eye movement disorder interpretation, but it's not ready for prime time yet. Is that a fair summary? Dr Van Stavern: In my opinion, yes. Dr Jones: Good to know. This has struck me every time I've read about ocular motor anatomy and ocular motor disorders, whether they're supranuclear or intranuclear disorders. The anatomy is complex, the circuitry is very complicated. Which means I learn it and then I forget it and then I relearn it. But some of the anatomy isn't even fully understood yet. This is a very complex real estate in the brainstem. Why do you think the neurophysiology and neuroanatomy is not fully clarified yet? And is there anything on the horizon that might clarify some of this anatomy? Dr Van Stavern: The very first time I encountered this topic as an ophthalmology resident and later as a neurology resident, I just couldn't understand how anyone could really understand all of the circuitry involved. And there is a lot of circuitry that is involved in us simply having clear, single binocular vision with the afferent and efferent system working in concert. Even in arch. In my chapter, when you look at the anatomy and physiology of the smooth pursuit system or the vertical gaze pathways, there's a lot of, I'll admit it, there's a lot of hand waving and we don't completely understand it. I think a lot of it has to do with, in the old days, a lot of the anatomy was based on lesions, you know, lesion this area either experimentally or clinically. And that's how you would determine, this is what this region of the brain is responsible for. Although we've gotten more sophisticated with better imaging, with functional connectivity MRI and so on, all of those have limitations. And that's why I still don't think we completely understand all the way this information is integrated and synthesized, and, to get even more big level and esoteric, how this makes its way into our conscious mind. And that has to do with self-awareness and consciousness, which is a whole other kettle of fish. It's just really complicated. I think when I'm at least talking to other neurologists and residents, I try to keep it as simple as possible from a clinical standpoint. If you see someone with an eye movement problem, try to see if you can localize it to which level you're dealing with. Is it a muscle problem? Is it neuromuscular junction? Is it nerve? Is it nucleus? Is it supranuclear? If you can put it at even one of those two levels, you have eliminated huge territories of neurologic real estate, and that will definitely help you target and tailor your workup. So, again, you're not costing the patient in the healthcare system hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dr Jones: Great points in there. And I think, you know, if we can't get it down to the rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus, if we can get it to the brainstem, I think that's obviously- that's helpful in its own right. And I imagine, Dr Van Stavern, managing patients with persistent ocular motor disorders is a challenge. We take foveation for granted, right, when we can create these single cortical images. And I imagine it's important for daily function and difficult for patients who lose that ability to maintain their ocular alignment. What are some of the clinical tools that you use in your practice that our listeners should be aware of to help patients that have a persistent supranuclear disorder of ocular movement? Dr Van Stavern: Well, I think you tailor your treatment to the symptoms, and if it's directly due to underlying condition, obviously you treat the underlying condition. If they have sixth nerve palsy because of a skull base tumor, obviously you treat the skull base tumor. But from a practical standpoint, I think it depends on what the symptom is, what's causing it, and how much it's affecting their quality of life. And everyone is really different. Some patients have higher levels of tolerance for blurred vision and double vision. For things- for patients who have double vision, depending upon the underlying cause we can sometimes use prisms and glasses. Prisms are simply- a lot of people just think prism is this, like, mystical word that means a lot. It's simply just an optical device that bends light. So, it essentially bends light to allow the eyes- basically, the image to fall on the fovea in both eyes. And whether the prisms help or not is partly dependent upon how large the misalignment is. If somebody has a large degree of misalignment, you're not going to fix that with prism. The amount of prism you'd need to bend the light enough to land on the fovea in both eyes would cause so much blur and distortion that it would essentially be a glorified patch. So, for small ranges of misalignment, prisms are often very helpful, that we can paste over glasses or grind into glasses. For larger degrees of misalignment that- let's say it is due to some skull base tumor or brain stem lesion that is not going to get better, then eye muscle surgery is a very effective option. We usually like to give people a long enough period of time to make sure there's no change before proceeding with eye muscle surgery. Dr Jones: Very helpful. So, prisms will help to a limited extent with misalignment, and then surgery is always an option if it's persistent. That's a good pearl for, I think, our listeners to take away. Dr Van Stavern: And even in those circumstances, even prisms and eye muscle surgery, the goal is primarily to cause single binocular vision and primary gaze at near. Even in those cases, even with the best results, patients are still going to have double vision, eccentric gaze. For most people, that's not a big issue, but we have had a few patients… I had a couple of patients who were truck drivers who were really bothered by the fact that when they look to the left, let's say because it's a 4th nerve palsy on the right, they have double vision. I had a patient who was a golfer who was really, really unhappy with that. Most people are okay with that, but it all depends upon the individual patient and what they use their vision for. Dr Jones: That's a great point. There's not enough neurologists in the world. I know for a fact there are not enough neuro-ophthalmologists in the world, right? There's just not many people that have that dual expertise. You mentioned that you started with ophthalmology and then did neurology training. What do you think the pipeline looks like for neuro-ophthalmology? Do you see growing interest in this among trainees, or unchanged? What are your thoughts about that? Dr Van Stavern: No, that's a continuing discussion we're having within our own field about how to attract more residents into neuro-ophthalmology. And there's been a huge shift. In the past, this was primarily ophthalmology-driven. Most neuro-ophthalmologists were trained in ophthalmology initially before doing a fellowship. The last twenty years, it switched. Now there's an almost 50/50 division between neurologists and ophthalmologists, as more neurologists have become more interested. This is probably a topic more for the ophthalmology equivalent of Continuum. One of the perceptions is this is not a surgical subspecialty, so a lot of ophthalmology residents are disincentivized to pursue it. So, we have tried to change that. You can do neuro-ophthalmology and do eye muscle surgery or general ophthalmology. I think it really depends upon whether you have exposure to a neuro-ophthalmologist during your neurology residency. If you do not have any exposure to neuro-ophthalmology, this field will always seem mysterious, a huge black box, something intimidating, and something that is not appealing to a neurologist. I and most of my colleagues make sure to include neurology residents in our clinic so they at least have exposure to it. Dr Jones: That's a great point. If you never see it, it's hard to envision yourself in that practice. So, a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't have neuro-ophthalmologists, it's hard to expose that practice to trainees. Dr Van Stavern: And we're also trying; I mean, we make sure to include medical students, bring them to our meetings, present research to try to get them interested in this field at a very early stage. Dr Jones: Dr Van Stavern, great discussion, very helpful. I want to thank you for joining us today. I want to thank you for not just a great podcast, but also just a wonderful article on ocular motor disorders, supranuclear and intranuclear. I learned a lot, and hopefully our listeners did too. Dr Van Stavern: Well, thanks. I really appreciate doing this. And I love Continuum. I learn something new every time I get another issue. Dr Jones: Well, thanks for reading it. And I'll tell you as the editor of Continuum, I learn a lot reading these articles. So, it's really a joy to get to read, up to the minute, cutting-edge clinical content for neurology. Again, we've been speaking with Dr Gregory Van Stavern, author of a fantastic article on intranuclear and supranuclear disorders of eye movements in Continuum's most recent issue on neuro-ophthalmology. Please check it out, and thank you to our listeners for joining today. Dr Monteith: This is Dr Teshamae Monteith, Associate Editor of Continuum Audio. If you've enjoyed this episode, you'll love the journal, which is full of in-depth and clinically relevant information important for neurology practitioners. Use the link in the episode notes to learn more and subscribe. AAN members, you can get CME for listening to this interview by completing the evaluation at continpub.com/audioCME. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio.

How do conversation skills make your podcast process more enjoyable? Even if we're lucky enough to “do what we love,” work tends to have tedious aspects we don't like. Craig Constantine is a passion podcaster who, through the creation of thousands of episodes and rigorous reflection, has built a workflow that simplifies every step of his method, from prep to publication. A consummate conversationalist, Craig's overarching goal is to use understanding and compassion to have exciting exchanges that inspire listeners to dive directly into meaningful dialogues. In this episode, he gets into the nitty-gritty of the personal process that led him to discover his devotion to podcasting. Let Craig's passion inspire you to: Understand the difference between compassion and empathy in conversation Consider why you might not want to bring your prepared questions into the conversation Approach AI tools to create the perfect research assistant Simplify your process to make it more fun in the long run Links worth mentioning from the episode: Listen to Episode 51, Honing Your Podcast Voice Through Second Language Learning with Stephanie Fuccio - https://www.organizedsound.ca/honing-your-podcast-voice-though-second-language-learning-with-stephanie-fuccio-episode-51/ Engage with Craig: Keep on top of what Craig is up to - https://craigconstantine.com/current-projects/ Learn more about Craig's podcasting mission - https://openandcurious.org/ Connect with Mary! Leave a voicemail with your feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/VisibleVoice or email visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com Get the full transcript of the episode at http://www.visiblevoicepodcast.com Read up on more secrets with the Visible Voice Insights Newsletter https://www.organizedsound.ca/newsletter To learn more or work with Mary, check out https://www.organizedsound.ca Link up on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marychan-organizedsound/ Engage on Instagram @OrganizedSoundProductions https://www.instagram.com/organizedsoundproductions Show Credits: Podcast audio design, engineering, and edited by Mary Chan of Organized Sound Productions Podcast cover art by Emily Johnston of Artio Design Co. Show notes written by Shannon Kirk of Right Words Studio Post-production support by Kristalee Forre of Forre You VA Transcript with Audio Description: CRAIG: Oh, no pressure. But thank you so much for inviting me. You get the prize for, of all the people who ever asked me to be on their show, you're the one who worked the hardest. So thank you so much for that. > MARY: A lot of logisticals behind the scene, and, you know, personal schedules and stuff. CRAIG: You actually hunted me down. You asked me through a service that we're both on, and I totally ghosted you, like a lot of people. And then you went and found my website and found my contact form and emailed me, and I'm like, wow, all right, this person is motivated. Yes, I want to be on the show. MARY: Well, what you do is intentional practice of conversations, and I think that is so unique because a lot of people find podcasting as like, oh, I can talk, I'll just plug a microphone in and start talking. > But what is intentional conversation? Why is it so important to you? CRAIG: Well, it's important to me because I found myself having more and more really great conversations, and that's like a whole separate story. And the more that I learned how to shut up and listen, which took me longer than it should have, the more I shut up and listened, the more I enjoyed the conversations and the more other people seemed to enjoy them. And then the people lurking around it enjoyed them too.  So I started wondering, well, this isn't new. Humans have been doing this for a long time. And the more that I looked into it, now I have a books problem. You know, like, oh, here's a book from 150 years ago where somebody had all these things. And then I started having conversations that I was intentionally picking challenging guests. Not that the people were challenging, but, like, I have no knowledge about the topic we're going to have this conversation about, then, what would the skills be that I would need to have that be a good conversation when I'm totally floundering every second of the way?  And I'm like an autodidact nerdy self learner. So it works well for me to be like, whoa, that sucked. That was horrible. And then I, like, write down, why did suck? What was wrong with it? How could I make it better? So I'm always preaching, like, you know, take notes and reflect, um, on your conversations, reflect on your life in general, and figure out, could I try something different next time? Or maybe that just, it happened. The bird flew into my head. That, that went weird. MARY: So then what do you need then to have a conversation? Because, you know, you were saying, I stopped talking, so I listened. But when people think of dialogue, well, you gotta talk. So how do you define that art of conversation? CRAIG: That's a really hard question. That's two different questions. How do I define the art of conversation? I'm gonna ignore how I define it. That's hard. I would say that you actually, you don't really have to talk for it to be a good conversation. And a lot of times when I'm having conversations with people, they are already aware of my, my issues of, like, wanting to dig into the meta.  But even when I'm talking to people who don't know anything at all about me, they have an agenda and the real question is, when you're having a conversation with someone, is the other person aware of their own agenda? That's really, like, determines are we going to have a spectacular conversation. So Mary has ideas about where this conversation is supposed to go, ideas about what she wants the two of us to find here for the people who are listening. So that's like the biggest switch or choice. Like, when I'm having a conversation with someone, I'm, as best I can, always intentional about why I'm here, what I'm saying, why I'm saying, and I'm always curious, like, what is the other person thinking when they started talking? Were they just talking at me because they haven't seen me in a week, or are they really interested in something?  So that's like, the first thing is like, are both people on the same page about what does it mean to have a good conversation? Some people, they just talk. I'm not saying that's bad. It's just, you know, that's a deli conversation that's going to be a little more shallow maybe, or a little different. MARY: Yeah. What about then in the role of podcasting? That being intentional piece, do you then prep your questions and you have your set questions, or do you allow that conversation to unfold? Because, like you said, everyone's got an agenda. CRAIG: Yes. It depends on what you mean by you. So if you mean, does Craig? I generally don't write down my questions anymore in the very, very beginning, which would be like 2017. So I was kind of late to the party, but when I started, yes, I used to be intentional about, the show was all about movement, I would be intentional about, I'm going to talk to this person because I have this question or this story I want to know. And I would write down my questions, and I would imagine, like if I wasn't thinking story arc, but I was kind of imagining a story arc about, I want to start here and then I want to go here, and I want to end over there if I can.  So in the beginning, yes, I totally did that. And I got heavily involved in coaching podcasters. I've literally helped thousands of people as an assistant coach in courses. And that's a very good question for people to ask. So I say yes, in the beginning, write literally, preferably with a pencil, not like typing on your computer, because writing is different than typing.  MARY: Yeah,  CRAIG: Write your questions out in whatever your chicken scratch looks like. And then when you get to the recording, don't bring your notes. That's what I tell people, because the notes will distract you. I have a blank piece of paper on the table in front of me just in case I need to write something down. But when you go into those recordings as the host, all of that homework that you did, you're not going to forget it. It's going to be in the back of your head.  So I would say yes, I used to write things down, and I do recommend that that's a great place to start. And then eventually I can hold the questions in my head for weeks. I think about someone, you know, and I listened to one of your episodes as I was preparing for this, and I had, oh, that's interesting. And I see the kinds of things that Mary is attracted to, and I feel like I have enough things in my head that I could, I don't want to, but we could probably flip this around, and I could probably, you know, be the host if I had to, but I don't want to. > That's, if you ask Craig, how Craig does it, how does everybody else do it? I don't think people write their questions down based on what I hear, When I hear people. MARY: Certain shows, there are some shows where it's like, bam, bam, bam, question, question. There was, like, no follow up. And I feel like, yeah, that's not good either. CRAIG: Right. That's the other problem. That's the opposite of prepared. MARY: Yeah, exactly. So then if you don't write your questions, it feels a lot to me, too, about when I worked in radio, we called this show prep. You know, it's all about being prepared and kind of knowing, like you said, that agenda. But having the follow up questions are the sparks in that conversation. So do you then, have, like, a toolbox of ways to guide a conversation, or like,...  CRIAG: Oh yeah. MARY: …those. Oh yeah? Yeah. Okay, What is that?  CRAIG: So there's a whole bunch of them, and rather than try to rattle them off, but just kind of, like, paint kind of what they are. MARY: Yeah. CRAIG: I have these ideas in mind about, I have a visual, I live, like, 2 hours from Manhattan, so I've been there a bunch of times. And if you ever walk down Broadway is, like, the biggest street, you can walk the whole length of the place. I imagine that in conversations, I'm walking with someone.  So if I'm talking with someone and something strange happens, like, they ask me a question that I wasn't expecting, or they give me a strange answer, or they stopped, like, something weird happens. I'm imagining they, like, turned left into a side street. And my reaction needs to be not, wait, where are you going? Yeah, come back. My reaction needs to be, well, that's interesting. And follow, like, go with them. So I'm always trying to listen, air quoting is useless, you can't even see. I'm trying to listen not only to the words that they're saying, but the emotions that they're conveying. The emotions maybe they're trying to convey, which could be different, and try to imagine what is the experience that that person is having.  So I'm always yammering about my mission is about creating better conversation to spread understanding and compassion and empathy is close, but I think empathy is a thing that might come later after understanding and compassion. And I feel like that is what I'm trying to do, is I'm trying to deploy understanding and compassion as a tool.  So in a conversation, when something weird happens, I'm thinking, do I understand? Like, that's my first thought is, do I really understand what just happened here? Like, maybe I don't understand and I should ask a question about what just happened here. So I have, like, lots of nerdy tools that I can bring up, but they all fit in that toolbox of my first, you know, do I understand? And then, am I being compassionate? Is this person freaking out because Craig's too energetic for them? Like, that happens to people. I understand. MARY: You mentioned empathy, and I feel like empathy is very similar to compassion. CRAIG: Yes. MARY: So how do you differentiate that? CRAIG: The way that I think of it is that empathy is about the feeling and compassion is about, I don't want to say doing something about it, but imagining what could be done, either generally or that I should be doing. So, empathy, if you're empathic and you can't distance yourself from that, that's really hard. That's people who, like, if the elections go bad and then they have, like, a nervous breakdown, I'm like, well, okay, I mean, you're feeling for those other people, but you really need to be able to control that. You have to have boundaries. You have to be able to protect yourself physically and emotionally.  So, empathy, I think of as like, a feelers reaching out, sensitivity. And even I would say I'm pretty empathic. But even if you're really empathic, you really never know. You really can't say, I know what you're feeling, but that would be the goal, would be to feel outward. And then the compassion is, all right if I understand what's going on and I have some empathy for the person, the situation, or whatever we're talking about, then I might, if I'm a compassionate person, I might begin to imagine, is there something I could do about that? Could I help that person pick up whatever they dropped? Or could I donate money to this charity? Or could I help push this car out of a snowbank? That's the kind of thing that I do because I'm a large guy, you know.  But if you didn't have empathy for the person who was stuck in the snowbank, you'd just be like, sucks to be you. And you'd walk right by, you know? So that's why when I wrote my mission. That's why I wrote compassion rather than empathy, because I feel like empathy, I don't want to say it's easier, but I felt like I already had enough empathy and I wanted to work on the compassion part. So very, the mission is very specific to me, of course. MARY: What about then, if you're in a conversation with someone and you don't agree? CRAIG: That depends on why I'm in the conversation. So I don't do journalistic interviews, just because it's not my cup of tea. But I've listened to a lot of journalists talk about their process. And, yeah, if you're a journalist and you're supposed to be getting facts or truth or you're trying to, you know, uncover a particular story, if people say something you disagree with, you need to push back, and you can push back nicely. You can ask clarifying questions. You can, you know, throw in juxtapose. I thought it was X. You can make jokes. There are ways to reveal questions without actually asking questions, which then lets the two of us stand in one place and point at the question over yonder without it getting very antagonistic.  So there are things you can do to sort of direct, or in this case, redirect the conversation where you hope it would go. But that's not normally what I do because I'm not a journalist looking for something I don't have, like a target I'm aiming for, which kind of cuts both ways. Not having a target makes it harder because I think it would be easier if I knew where I was supposed to be going. So I don't often find myself in situations where, no, that's wrong, and I need to get you to tell me the other thing, so.  MARY: Yeah, it's just a matter of, okay, yes, you've said what you've said now. Oh, I'm going to ask you this question to, to redirect. CRAIG: Yeah, ask more questions. Ask different questions. You were asking for about tools earlier. I sometimes talk about people's salience, the word salience. Humans are spectacular at noticing salience. I always say I'm afraid of three kinds of snakes, little snakes, big snakes, and any stick that looks anything at all like a snake. So snake fear and, like, falling. These are wired in.  So there are other things, in conversations when you're listening to someone and you have an agenda and a story arc and a plan, and your brain suddenly goes, wait, what? And, like, it grabs these two things. The thing that you thought you were going to ask about and the thing that just lit you up, you have these two. Those things are related. I'm telling you, they are. That's what your brain just went, these are related. And you could just say, I wonder if these two things are related. You can just say that I do that and give people two, you know, like cheese and sneakers, and people will go, huh, that's a really good question. And then they'll think about it, and it's.  Conversations are just people sharing ideas. There's no rules about my ideas have to follow logically and clearly from the last. It can be whatever two people want to share. So I really feel like people, like I've said, I've seen a lot of people do this. A lot of people take courses and say, how do I do interviews? They really undervalue this magical, I don't want to say device, because your brain's not a computer, but, like, this magical power that you have about identifying the things that light you up. That already works. So that's probably what your podcast is about. If you have a day job as a journalist, then you got to work a little harder, because now you have to. You have to aim those tools at a specific. My producer said, I must do X. MARY: Yes. CRAIG: Just a little harder. MARY: Yeah. Like you were saying we're not computers, right? This. This isn't an AI interview. CRAIG: Whew, good. MARY: You know, we are humans. We have emotion. We have feelings in our bodies that will then guide us to. Okay, what is that curiosity piece? What is that follow up question? CRAIG: Why am I upset all of a sudden? MARY: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, like, go with that feeling in your body and make sure that, you say it out loud. CRAIG: Yeah. A lot of times, just naming the thing goes a long way toward helping both parties understand, because sometimes people say something and, you know, somebody's triggered, and if you're really good at hiding that, well, that's not helping anybody. I mean, maybe if you're really triggered, you're trying to leave the space. Okay. But if it's the kind of thing that can be discussed, people can't read minds. I used to make that error a lot. I'm like, the other person opposite me is fuming. And I don't know. MARY: Yep. You can still hear it in their voice, even though you can't see them fuming. Like in the podcasting world. CRAIG: Yeah. Audio is magical. MARY: Yeah. Is magical that way, for sure.  Let's move into a little bit with your podcasting journey. You have two active shows right now. Even one show is a lot, like, how. How do you manage all of this? CRAIG: Oh, I actually have. Well, if you want to count accurately, I have five active shows.  MARY: You have five active, oh geeze.  > CRAIG: Okay. All right. So how do I manage it? I have a pride problem. I love, you know, shiny things. I love to go after them.  So the very first show that I created, I did not set out to make a podcast. I didn't say, I want to become a podcaster. This is the thing I want to do. I was literally having cool conversations in movement spaces. I would be out, like, in London running and jumping and playing with people at an event or doing a thing, and then I'm the kind of person who just walks up to someone and says, whoever they are, oh, hey, and we start talking.  And then I turn around, there's people walking behind us because I'm talking to somebody semi-famous. And then they say, you should have recorded that. I would have listened to that. That's literally how I got into podcasting. Then I was like, well, I guess I should get some SM58 mics and a little interface. I just started basically pressing record on conversations that I was having. So I'm super lucky, super privileged that that happened to me.  So that's how I started into it in 2017. And I did, like, 40 episodes with no clue what I was doing. Just like, you know, like, I don't know, let's try this. I had a friend who knew how to edit. I'm like, hey Brian, and he's like, use this mic and get this interface. And, you know, like, people just giving me tips. And I went about, like, 35 or 40 episodes along. And then I took a course. And I took the course not, and it's. It was a sofa, I call it sofa to 5K. I had a podcast course, and I already knew all that. I had 40 episodes out. MARY: Yeah. CRAIG: But I wanted to completely tear it apart, and I did. I took it all apart, and I, like, changed the descriptions, and the course made me think about things differently. It was one of the greatest things I ever did. And I met a whole bunch of people who were passionate about podcasting. That was the third time they ran the course. I went back as an assistant coach for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, for the runnings of the course, till they stopped the course.  And along the way, I kept having more ideas. So the first show was, I was having conversations. People wanted to hear them. But the next show which came out, I was like, I wonder what would happen if you did a daily podcast. That was just me for 30 seconds reading a quote every day and didn't tell anybody. Just, like, stealth launched the thing. So I did 1,400 episodes of that show.  And then while that show was going on, I started a podcasting community, and I started interviewing the other podcasters in the community and working my way up with, like, who should I talk to after I did a show? And that show was all about podcasting.  So once I fell backwards into it and figured out how to do it, then it became this. Like, I imagine painters might just, oh, I got a paint. They run to the easel and they start painting. And, like, I do that with podcasting. I, like, I run to the microphone and I start making. Or I get people and I make a recording. So that's how I wound up with all these shows. It's really not any harder to have five shows. It's just, how many episodes are you doing? That's all that really matters. MARY: Yes. CRAIG: So, uh, you also, I haven't forgotten, you asked me, how do I do it? But if you want to follow up on that before I tell you how I do it. Or I can just tell you how I do it. MARY: Yeah, how do you do it? CRAIG: How do I do it? I'm a checklist and process nerd. So I have, for every one of the shows, I have a separate document that I maintain that tells me every detail. Like, this is the, you get an e nine minor guitar chord, goes here as the music bumper, and then the intro, and it has every step all the way through to emailing the guests at the end to say, thank you, your show is published. Here's the, you know, please share.  And if you do ten of those, then you'll be editing your list. And then the list gets a little more detailed. And eventually, all of the things that used to make me get stuck, I don't want to do the editing. I'm, I don't like editing. Oh, I don't want to do the show notes. All these things that I get stuck on. I just kept making it simpler. What's the simplest thing that could possibly work? And that's what I, and I broke it down to more and more steps until, when I look at the checklist, I have an episode that you go out sometime this week, and the next checkbox is so easy. I'm like, you know, I could totally do that, that I could do that.  And that's. That was how I broke it down, was to just make it simple enough that I could find a simple next step for whatever was going on. And then the checklist helped me remember. So if I'm not doing anything for three weeks. When I come back. Oh, right, here's where I was. Here's how I start, here's how I finish. MARY: What's an example of making it simpler? What does that mean? CRAIG: So we were talking about AI before. I use ChatGPT to write the episode notes. Shhh. I say that at the bottom, I wrote, written with, actually, it's written with help from ChatGPT. MARY: Yes. I was just going to say, I like that you have it written down. CRAIG: I'm a computer nerd, but I'm not an AI. Like to me, I was like everybody else, a what? How do you work this? I had no clue. But I have a checklist that helps me prompt the AI to give me what I want. So just like little nuances of sentences, like I'm resisting urge to open it up and read them, but it's like these really detailed, like, I want, say, I want one sentence to be the hook sentence for the thing that might be like 120 word paragraph that I've slowly fiddled with and kept in a document.  So now when I learn what the hook sense, that it's like copy, paste, and it actually says, write me five variations of a sentence and then it tells it what to do and then it writes me five sentences and I look at them and none of them are good enough. But somebody, once I forget where this comes from, somebody said, working with AI fixes the blank page problem, so you should totally use it for everything because it will do a terrible job and you will rush to fix it's work. And it gets me going every time.  So like, I rush and I'm like, no, no, you cannot use the word delve. No, no, no, edit the sentence, right? And then I edit my instructions and I say, you may not use the word delve. Put that in the instructions. So now when I have to write episode notes for like, say, a 15 minute conversation, I'm like, I can do that in 3 minutes. Watch this. > And I'm all done, you know, copy and paste and, and I have to edit, you know, like everybody has their personal writing style. I don't bother to try and make it do my style. I just edit the thing. I look at the paragraph and I go, hey, I don't like this part. Edit it. And then at the bottom I just write, written with help from ChatGPT.  I tell everybody who asks, like podcasters. It's like having the greatest research assistant. This person is tireless. They have infinite patience. No matter how many dumb questions I ask, they're just like, here's your answer. You can, like, just ghost them for two weeks, come back, they pick up right where you left off without a single. As long as you realize it's really more about, I think of it like the first stage on the rocket launch. Get me moving, get me off the ground here so I can get a feel for what this thing is supposed to be. And that's what I use it for. MARY: What about not AI? What can you make simpler? That has nothing to do with AI, because that's what everybody's talking about these days. CRAIG: I stopped editing my shows. How about that one? If you've listened to, so the one show is called Movers Mindset is 170 episodes. I think Podtalk is at 150 or something like that. And basically the last hundred plus maybe 150 episodes on those two shows that I've released. I don't edit the audio.  Now, full disclosure, I'm actually hard of hearing. I have hearing aids and crappy hearings. I'm a terrible audio editor to begin with, but I also can't afford to pay ninety cents a minute to edit all this stuff. So I went, well, what if I had a conversation that was so good, there wasn't anything that had to be cut out? How would you do that? Yes, and then work on that for 300 conversations. I've done about 500 recorded conversations for my shows, for other shows, not counting my guesting appearances. And every time I do them, I listen back and I'm like, why did I say that? Why didn't I shut up? > Because a lot of times the guest is about to say the great thing, and I'm still like, wait, you got to hear me. It's like, no, I'm the host. Shut up.  So I've looked at, like, exactly what percentage of myself, when I'm the host, do I want in the audio? The answer is 25%. I want one quarter Craig and three quarters of the guest. And I occasionally drop that into Otter, which will give you a percentage speaker rating. And I make sure I'm at the target number that I want. And if I'm over or under, then I think about that for my next conversation.  So, if you don't want to edit, could you just make the conversations better? Could you screen out people who are poor speakers unless you really need them? Like, there can be issues sometimes. I won't really want to guess because I want that representation. I really want this voice to be heard of. So I'm willing to live with thumbs and aahs and pauses. Just put it out raw you know, edit the levels, run the anti white noise background thing, 30 seconds. I mean, sometimes I'm, I have a 45 minutes conversation. It takes me five minutes to go from raw audio to mp3, final mix down, including the time it takes my Mac to make the mp3. It's, you know, because otherwise I wouldn't get it done if I didn't cut that corner.  And there are other ones, like, I stopped doing introductions in the guest. Like, I never, when I'm recording, I never ask the guest to tell me who they are. Tell us, no, that's a disaster. And I don't. I don't read that in anymore for a while. I would open the show by saying, oh, my guest today is. I skipped all that. I got tired of recording intros and outros because I actually don't think people listen to them. So I skip them. My show opens, and I say, Hello, I'm Craig Constantine. There's like a sentence or two of what the show is. And then I asked the guest the first question, and we just have a conversation. There are other things about, oh, I can only do so much social media. So I have a WordPress plugin. I hit a button, and it just posts the three platforms. And then I'm like, good enough. Yep. I'm not making short form. I figured out how to do YouTube auto load from RSS. Good enough. MARY: Done. Yes. CRAIG: Moving on. I just looked at every single thing on the list that was in my head, and I went, this is stressing me out. Write it down. And then when I looked at the list written down, I identified, I can't do this. This is too much. I want to have hundreds, thousands of great conversations, and I don't want to do all these pieces. So delete pieces until I only want to do the part between record and stop and anything else that I absolutely have to, to make the show go out. MARY: And I think that's the difference, too, between people who are podcasting as a passion, like you do, or those who are like, I need to generate income, so I have to do X, Y, and Z, right? So it's like talking about that agenda piece. You were, you were saying at the very beginning, it's like, what is your goal for your podcast? So what would you define as success, then, for your podcast? CRAIG: Oh. Sometimes people can read each other's minds. I was listening to some of your shows, and that's a question you ask often because it's super important. And I'm like, this would be the spot where we need to talk about what Craig thinks success is.  Success, in my opinion, for my shows is so for the two shows that have guests, if somebody listens to an episode and then they manage to email in real life, whatever, talk to the guest and they can skip over the parts that make conversations suck and go right to the good part. That's the definition of success for my show.  So one of the shows is all about parkour and has french names and all these things, and there's people who run and jump and play all over the world, and everybody's pretty famous that I'm talking to. If they, somebody runs into that person and says, hey. And just goes right to the part of the conversation where both of them are enjoying it. Not, my guest, who's semi famous is like, oh, another fan. But where the fan comes up and says something and that person goes, oh, yeah, I'd love to talk about that.  Like, that's my definition of success. People listen to the episodes that I did, and that enables them to have a better conversation with that person, even if it's just email or, you know, direct messaging or whatever. That may be a weird definition of success, but it turns out to be hard to do that. But it only means I have to have a certain kind of conversation. It doesn't mean that I have to advertise or, you know, kill myself in editing, I hope. > MARY: Yeah. CRAIG: That nobody listens. MARY: That's always the podcaster problem.  CRAIG: Yeah. MARY: Nobody's listening. CRAIG: Well, there's only one problem and lots of problems. MARY: So what are some other problems that you have with podcasting? CRAIG: Uh, I spend too much time on it. Spend too much time on it. It's like I have an embarrassment of riches. So I understand. I'm not claiming this is weird, but I understand why people say they're nervous about reaching out to guests. I do not have that problem. I'm a computer nerd. I have something like 600 guests. I'm not exaggerating in queues. And I wrote software that mails me weekday mornings that suggests, you know, you mailed this person three weeks ago and they never got back to you, so you probably should message them again. Like, I wrote software to keep track of all that, so that I can just turn the crank. I do the fun part, which is, new email, Hey, Bob, would you like to be on the show? Or like that kind of thing?  People mention a guest to me and I put it in a certain little config file, and I don't forget, two years later, it comes up. And then when I look at the notes, I know who recommended them. And maybe I, maybe they said, I'd really like to hear them talk about X. Like, I figured out a way to capture that stuff. You can do it with pieces of paper or excel spreadsheet, whatever you like.  I think a lot of the struggle with guest outreach is in it's just an infinite number of threads. Like, it's complex, and it's always going to be complex. Don't put your friends into customer relationship management software. That doesn't make it better. So I just figured out, well, what would this have to be for me to enjoy doing this?  So I have, the other problem is, if I turn that crank, if I start messaging people, I can do like five touches in a day in like ten minutes, because I just send an email, send a thing, go to whatever platform they're on. You do that for a few days, then people start showing up in your calendar. And like, that's the other side is make sure people can schedule themselves in using Calendly or something.  If I'm not careful, all of a sudden it takes about two to three weeks. Three weeks out, all of a sudden it's like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I have all these podcast recordings scheduled. And even if I say one show per day, I can still wind up with two or three on one day because I have multiple shows. > That's my problem. I removed all of the sticky points, and I really wasn't paying attention to that means it's all going to go really fast. So I have to like, woah, slow down and try to keep it under control. MARY: Wow, you definitely have a very unique challenge. > CRAIG: Nice choice of words that you're going to say, that's very special. MARY: Earlier you were talking about, you got a lot of advice. You give advice about podcasting. So what was one advice that you got that did, you know, good. You're like, you know what, this is an advice that's out in the podcasting space, don't follow it. CRAIG: Oh, well, it's, uh, a similar version of that. Question is, what's something I disagree with that everybody else would be mad at me, and that's that you have to publish on a schedule. That's the piece of advice that I patently, I started on that at one point, I had a show that was all over the map, and I actually had hired someone to work on my team. I said, job one, get me on a schedule, which meant get the guest work and all that stuff. And I got on a schedule and I published every week for like a year and a half. I have completely given up, I don't care about, I don't care about schedules. So I said, like, mary, when was my last episode put out? MARY: I'd have to look, I don't know. CRAIG: Right? I mean, even if you went and listened, it's okay if you didn't. I don't think Craig is that interesting. But, even if somebody goes and listens to one of my shows, thing they look at is not the publication date. They go to the chronological list. They want to listen to the most recent one. Maybe they scroll back and listen to the trailer, or maybe they search for a word.  So I think that the advice to get yourself on a schedule. Okay. If it's your first episode, yes. Get on a schedule for five or ten or something, seven. But have it in your mind that you're planning on getting off the schedule, or you're at least planning on slowing way down. Because weekly, if you're. If you're, like, a one man band, and if you're doing things by all by yourself, weekly is insane. MARY: Oh, yeah. CRAIG: Even if it's hostile, weekly is like the treadmill. So I, I think that's the advice that it's super useful if someone is literally starting out on the sofa to 5K journey of podcasting. Yes. You need to imagine how do I, because it teaches you to close the loop. If I start here and I got to do all these steps, and I got to be done by next week, because I got to do it all over again, and then you start to think, oh, can I do the guest outreach in parallel? So I was working multiple guests, could I work ahead? So I got one or two in the can I. It teaches you those things. But then once you learn those lessons, then let go of having to publish on a schedule is my advice that I think didn't serve me because I took the course and people said that, and I was at 40, and I was like, yeah, I already want to get off this. > MARY: Get off this, because it is a lot of work and a lot of pressure on yourself to make sure it goes out at a certain day and time. CRAIG: Yeah. And, like, your die hard listeners, I've had people talk about. We talk about feedback and hearing from your fans. I've had people come up to me at, like. Like, I bump into them in person, and they talk about the show, and I've had people say to me, I can't keep up. Like, sometimes they drop, like, three or four in one week, and people are like, what are you doing? I can't listen to all this. It's too much content. MARY: That is a lot! CRAIG: Well, it is, but from my side, it's not. And I just had. It was a 30, 40 minutes conversation. I had a blast. It was awesome. And then I blasted through the post production, right? Sometimes I'm done, and if I'm really flying, I can be done in 45 minutes. I hit stop. The guest hasn't even, like, finished with their. You know, and I'm like, I'm done. It's crazy. MARY: So wait, why not then? Wait. Like, okay, if you've got this back, not back log. Like, then why not schedule? CRAIG: Because then the next week, I did three more, and then the next week I did three. Was like, well, there's another scheduled to, you know, never. And I also. I felt bad sometimes. I don't know, there's something about it. Everybody says, you always love all of your children the most. And every one of them, when I'm done with them, I'm like, that's the best thing I've ever created that has to go out right now.  It's part of my drive to make and do and create. And I feel like when I hit stop, I'm doing a disservice. I'm sitting on something I shouldn't be sitting on. And I have had some weird situations where I had some that I sat on for, like, ten months because I get nervous about that. Like, why isn't this done, well, because I can't get a transcript from the thing. I got stuck on details.  So, I really just love. I don't know, I love the feeling of, wow, I had a great conversation, and now everybody else can hear it with as little time between those two statements as I can get. MARY: Okay then, I'm checking out the time. Like, I had scheduled a certain amount of time with you, but then it got me thinking, then, do you schedule, like, a certain amount of time, or do you just let this conversation go? Because, like, I think I can talk to you for hours, right? And I literally mean that, you know, people say that on shows, but, you know, there has to be an end. CRAIG: Oh, I guess this is like a whole nother show. Okay, so I will say, yeah, you got 60 seconds before the time you allotted. However, I do not have a hard stop. So you could, if you want to record a second shows worth of material, knock yourself out.  Here's what I will say. People often ask if they're. If they're good podcasters, it occurs to them to ask, how do I have a good ending to my conversation? How do I have a good ending to my show, if I have a host and guest situation, and I always say, well, the first thing you can do is cross off anything that you know that won't work.  So, if you want to have a good ending, do not stop when the show sucks. > Right? So the friction and this is good. You always want to feel this as a host when you're on your show. This is great. This is where we should stop when you feel that tension of, this is awesome because people are going to slap their headphones off and go, that was awesome. And they're going to be like, they're going to go talk to somebody about the show or they're going to share it or whatever.  I mean, maybe don't stop right in the middle of an idea. But that part where we all want to go, wow, that was great. Now what do I ask? Oh, wait, there's more, Mary, let's talk about that. Don't do that. Just go, that was awesome. Thanks so much, Mary. It was a pleasure talking to you today. And hit stop. Hit stop when you're going is great, and you'll be good. Then there are a couple other little tips. Conversations go in, I call them saccades, not cicadas, the insect. Saccades, is a reference to how you move your eyes when you're reading. I don't know if people talk about cicadas in conversation, but, um, I'm doing it. There's a saccade to conversation. It's follow the bouncing ball, and it's about 20 minutes per hop on a conversation. MARY: I've heard about that. Yeah, yeah. CRAIG: And you might need to do people going, what? You might need to do a few hundred conversations to get out your metrics and look at the things. And what happens is, if you just let that bouncing ball go, you can't really stop at 30 if you're in the middle of a bounce and you can't really stop at the 20 minutes because that's the sucky part in the middle where you need to have a follow up question to get us back to the >.  So that's another thing is to understand, like, as a host on your show, understand some of the dynamics of conversation. Have your, have your conceptual head only if you can manage it. Only half in the show, half out of the show, watching the clock, knowing what you wrote that you wanted to get to, that you haven't got to yet. So, you know, oh, I have to get this one more thing. The next bounce of the saccade is going to be this. If you can manage to stay out. That's hard. Then that lets you have some of that. You know, you can have your head. You like old gopher, you know, like you stand up, you look around a little bit. Okay, let's go back into the next 20 minutes. So that's the, those are the things that I think about when I'm trying to figure out where to stop.  Really. Just don't stretch. You get to the end and it's awesome, and somebody says something profound, just say, that was awesome. MARY: That was awesome, Craig. CRAIG: But I did it on purpose.  MARY: I know. CRAIG: But, like, it's tough to do that when you're ahead. When you're really as a host, if you're having an awesome conversation, you get completely lost. That's good tape. MARY: So, yeah, that is. But I always end my show with the same question, and I'm going to let you go. So my last question for you is, what are you excited about podcasting right now? CRAIG: I totally should have prepared for that because I heard that what am I excited about podcasting? Well, in case people couldn't tell, I'm not excited about anything. I'm really excited about more people are starting to want to talk to me about conversation, and that's great because that means that I'm either, well I'm going to say I'm not doing something offensive. At least it means that things aren't going badly pessimistic.  So I'm really excited about having the chance. It's been happening more often to have conversations like this, where the whole thing is very meta about conversation. So that's really kind of makes me want to start another show. > I'm going to do more of this, but I'm not going there. So that's what I'm going to say. I'm really excited about and getting back, I was mentioning before I was sick, so I'm, like, on a pause at the moment. So I'm excited to get back to having more conversations, but it's really. I feel like I'm getting more interest in talking about talking. MARY: Yeah, I think that's what we need, because it's that human connection that we're all craving, you know? CRAIG: Oh, yeah. MARY: So thank you so much for this human connection with me and for the conversation. > CRAIG: My distinct pleasure. Thanks for inviting me. MARY: Thanks so much, Craig. I love the enthusiasm in his voice and for the work that he does. And, you know, during the conversation, he mentioned saccades and following the bouncing ball. I love that he brought up how conversations cycle through around 20 minutes, and we talked about this before, actually, in a previous episode with Steph Fuccio in number 51, we talked about Honing Your Podcast Voice Through Second Language Learning, and Steph had done similar research as well. She mentioned that same phenomenon around 20 minutes for a conversation. So if you want to revisit that episode number 51, the link is in the show notes.  So after listening to this conversation, what advice would you take from Craig's podcasting journey for your own show? Now, like I said on the show in the beginning, his podcast is a passion project and his success is not going to be the same as your success. So we're not saying you need to follow what he is doing. Like the way how he doesn't schedule. Scheduling is important to some people because it provides them structure and to make sure they do things so that they go out. Craig's really great at finding out what works for him, so I hope this episode makes you think about what could potentially really work for you. It's his idea of making things simpler. That's what he found works for him. But what does that mean for you?  Send me a voice note with your feedback at VisibleVoicePodcast.com. you'll find the purple button that says send voicemail. From there, click on that, send me your feedback, and let me know what would be simpler for your podcasting workflow. Or as always, you can email me as well VisibleVoicePodcast@gmail.com.  On the next episode we're talking voice tips. How do we embrace our voice as a tool? We think of podcasting as an easy thing to do where you can plug in your microphone and just start talking, but it's not as easy as that. We'll explore more of your voice next time. > > >

How can we use eye tracking to understand the workings of the brain? What about optimizing eye-tracking performance by harnessing the power of AI? How do you create a versatile eye tracker that can be used for virtually any cognitive research need? Meet Kirill Korotaev, the trailblazing Co-Founder & CEO of Purple Gaze! He is on a mission to answer these questions and bridge the existing gaps with FOXIE. This easy-to-use, affordable, customizable, AI-powered eye-tracking system revolutionizes cognitive data collection. Kirill's journey is a remarkable fusion of entrepreneurship, cognitive science, and the boundless potential of neurotechnology. But it goes even further. Picture this: Immersing yourself in the vibrant Argentine neuroscience community, presenting your vision in a language you've secretly mastered for a month. That's precisely what Kirill did, surprising his local team members and forging profound connections at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. With over five years of experience in management and marketing, Kirill brings a wealth of knowledge to the neurotech realm. He's not just a CEO; he's a global keynote speaker who envisions neurotechnology's transformative potential to enhance our lives. In this episode, we'll journey through Kirill's entrepreneurial odyssey, delve into his cognitive science background, and explore the groundbreaking strides at Purple Gaze. Join us as we navigate the convergence of technology, neuroscience, and the relentless pursuit of a brighter future. Prepare to be captivated by Kirill's insights and unshakable passion for the world of neurotechnology. Welcome to 'Neurocareers: Doing the Impossible! About the Podcast Guest: Join the Purple Gaze team: https://purplegaze.io/careers Follow Purple Gaze on social media: YouTube: https://youtube.com/@purplegaze X: https://x.com/purplegazing LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/purple-gaze/ Connect with Kirill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirillkorotaev/ Recommended communities and content: NeuroTechX: https://neurotechx.com Neuromatch: https://neuromatch.io/ LessWrong: https://lesswrong.com Deep Learning AI: https://deeplearning.ai Alpha Signal newsletter: https://alphasignal.ai Yannic Kilcher: https://www.youtube.com/@YannicKilcher About the Podcast Host: The Neurocareers podcast is brought to you by The Institute of Neuroapproaches (https://www.neuroapproaches.org/) and its founder, Milena Korostenskaja, Ph.D. (Dr. K), a neuroscience educator, research consultant, and career coach for people in neuroscience and neurotechnologies. As a professional coach with a background in the field, Dr. K understands the unique challenges and opportunities job applicants face in this field and can provide personalized coaching and support to help you succeed. Here's what you'll get with one-on-one coaching sessions from Dr. K: Identification and pursuit of career goals Guidance on job search strategies, resume and cover letter development, and interview preparation Access to a network of professionals in the field of neuroscience and neurotechnologies Ongoing support and guidance to help you stay on track and achieve your goals You can always schedule a free neurocareer consultation/coaching session with Dr. K at https://neuroapproaches.as.me/free-neurocareer-consultation Subscribe to our Nerocareers Newsletter to stay on top of all our cool neurocareers news at updates https://www.neuroapproaches.org/neurocareers-news

Edición Limitada - 1 de Enero del 2023. Especial 50 mejores canciones del 2023. Selección, producción y conducción: Francisco J. Brenes, Gustavo Verduzco. Realización: Gustavo Verduzco. Micrófonos: Samson Q2U. Presentando música de Public Image Ltd., Depeche Mode, Veil of Light, Fonohead, Beborn Beton, Marta y Tricky, Underworld, PJ Harvey, VNV Nation, MeLLLo y Nikonn, Vidéo L'Eclipse, The Distant Minds, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Noromakina, Comfort Cure, SCALA, Dot Allison, Sun's Signature, Mondträume con N-Frequency, Nouveau Arcade, Unity One, Schattenfrequenz, The New Division, Saccades y The KVB, Rid Of Me, Getsuga Tenshou, Mauri & Dark Vektor, The Killers, Slowdive, Das Koolies, Sally Shapiro, Electra Black, The Chemical Brothers, Modern English, Fontaines D.C., Jacknife Lee, Budgie y Lol Tolhurst con Bobbie Gillespie, Jean-Michel Jarre con Irène Drésel, Bootblacks, PC World, Beyond Border, Sun's Spectrum, Emma Anderson, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Kite, Health, Trevor Horn con Rick Astley, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Alex Braun y Ulver.

Edición Limitada - 11 de Setiembre del 2023. Selección, producción, realización y conducción: Francisco J. Brenes. Presentando música de Vince Clarke, Mick Harvey y Amanda Acevedo, Lilts, Nation of Language, Tricky con Lucia, Kristin Hersh, Devendra Banhart, Metric, Faith Healer, EXEK, Marika Hackman, Melenas, Ms Mr, Deeper, Provoker, Jesus Jones, The Soup Dragons, Maud Anyways, Bandit, The Gaslight Anthem, Taleen Kali, A.A. Williams, Sparklehorse, Medicine, My Bloody Valentine, Iggy Pop, Nzca Lines, Munya, Chvrches, Romy, Sally Shapiro, Echoberyl, Architrave, Katerina, Real Lies, Breeze, Saccades & The KVB, Christine and the Queens, Das Koolies, The Chemical Brothers, Sparkle Division, Cumgirl8, Owls y Aphex Twin.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.06.27.546752v1?rss=1 Authors: Herrera, B., Sajad, A., Errington, S. P., Schall, J. D., Diaz, J. R. Abstract: A multi-scale approach elucidated the origin of the error-related-negativity (ERN), with its associated theta-rhythm, and the post-error-positivity (Pe) in macaque supplementary eye field (SEF). Using biophysical modeling, synaptic inputs to layer-3 (L3) and layer-5 (L5) pyramidal cells (PCs) were optimized to account for error-related modulation and inter-spike intervals. The intrinsic dynamics of dendrites in L5 but not L3 PCs generate theta rhythmicity with random phase. Saccades synchronized the phase of this theta-rhythm, which was magnified on errors. Contributions from L5 PCs to the laminar current source density (CSD) observed in SEF were negligible. The CSD derived from L3 PCs could not explain the observed association between their error-related spiking modulation and scalp-EEG. Laminar CSD comprises multipolar components, with dipoles explaining ERN features, and quadrupoles reproducing those for Pe. The presence of monopoles indicates diffuse activation. These results provide the most advanced explanation of the cellular mechanisms generating the ERN. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.04.17.537161v1?rss=1 Authors: Brohl, F., Kayser, C. Abstract: Hearing is an active process and recent studies show that even the ear is affected by cognitive states or motor actions. One example are movements of the eardrum induced by saccadic eye movements - known as "eye movement-related eardrum oscillations" (EMREOs). While these are systematically shaped by the direction and size of saccades, the consequences of saccadic eye movements and their resulting EMREOs for hearing remain unclear. We here studied their implications for the detection of near-threshold clicks in human participants. Across three experiments sound detection was not affected by their time of presentation relative to saccade onset, by saccade amplitude or direction. While the EMREOs were shaped by the direction and amplitude of the saccadic movement, inducing covert shifts in spatial attention did not affect the EMREO, suggesting that this signature of active sensing is restricted to overt changes in visual focus. Importantly, in our experiments fluctuations in the EMREO amplitude were not related to detection performance, at least when monaural cues are sufficient. Hence while eye movements may shape the transduction of acoustic information the behavioral implications remain unclear. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.01.09.523285v1?rss=1 Authors: O'Neill, G. C., Mellor, S., Seymour, R. A., Alexander, N., Tierney, T. M., Timms, R. C., Maguire, E. A., Barnes, G. R. Abstract: There is renewed interest in electrical activity that extends beyond the typical electrophysiological 100 Hz bandwidth. This activity, often in the anterior temporal lobe, has been attributed to processes ranging from memory consolidation to epileptiform activity. Here, using an open-access resting state magnetoencephalography (MEG) dataset (n = 89), and a second task-based MEG dataset, we could reliably localise high-frequency power to the temporal lobes across multiple bands up to 300-400 Hz. A functional connectivity analysis of this activity revealed a robust resting state bilateral network between the temporal lobes. However, we also found robust coherence in the 100-200 and 200-300 Hz bands between source reconstructed MEG data and the electrooculography (EOG) localised to within the temporal poles. Additional denoising schemes applied to the data could reduce power localisation to the temporal poles but the topography of the functional network did not drastically alter. Whilst it is clear that this network is biological and robust to established denoising methods, we cannot definitively rule yet on whether this is of neural or myogenic origin. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Hello from Binary Jazz! We return with an episode that covers such expansive topics as apples, the opposite of a façade, and Florida hurricane stories. Also: feminism, soccer and reading speeds. The Unbelievable Science of How We Read (YouTube) How storm chips became a bad-weather staple in Atlantic Canada (Atlantic)

We had the pleasure to have Physiotherapist Dave Ross in our last episode, chatting about how he started his career as a kinesiologist and physiotherapist and the main back pain complications this past year. But who is Dr. Dave Ross? Dave is a #physiotherapist and a graduate of Queen's and McMaster Universities. Today we had the pressure to talk about the vestibular system Learn the effect of vestibular stimulation on eye-hand coordination. Understand its role in motor control and global health. Vestibular dysfunction is most commonly caused by head injury, aging, and viral infection. Other illnesses, as well as genetic and environmental factors, may also cause or contribute to vestibular disorders. Disequilibrium: Unsteadiness, imbalance, or loss of equilibrium; often accompanied by spatial disorientation. The goals of Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT) are: 1) enhancing gaze stability, 2) enhancing postural stability 3) improving vertigo 4) improving daily living activities ( like standing up and getting up from bed) Find Dave Ross at: @daverossphysio on Instagram https://vestibular.org/ The vision is a world where vestibular disorders are widely understood, rapidly diagnosed, and effectively treated so patients can restore balance and regain life. The Vestibular Disorders Association (VeDA) strives to create an inclusive community where everyone feels valued, represented, and respected. For any inquiry joa@joafitness.com To join the 30 day hip healing or the Posture School program , visit my website: joafitness.com Feel free to comment below #backpain #weightmanagement #posturecorrection #daveross #joarivas #backintoalignment #lowbackpain #vertigo #vestibularexercises

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.09.26.509463v1?rss=1 Authors: Calangiu, I., Kollmorgen, S., Reppas, J., Mante, V. Abstract: Dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex is thought to contribute to adaptive behavior by integrating temporally dispersed, behaviorally-relevant factors. Past work has revealed a variety of neural representations preceding actions, which are involved in internal processes like planning, working memory and covert attention. Task-related activity following actions has often been reported, but so far lacks a clear interpretation. We leveraged modified versions of classic oculomotor paradigms and population recordings to show that post-saccadic activity is a dominant signal in dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex that is distinct from pre-saccadic activity. Unlike pre-saccadic activity, post-saccadic activity occurs after each saccade, although its strength and duration are modulated by task context and expected rewards. In contrast to representations preceding actions, which appear to be mixed randomly across neurons, post-saccadic activity results in representations that are highly structured at the single-neuron and population level. Overall, the properties of post-saccadic activity are consistent with those of an action memory, an internal process with a possible role in learning and updating spatial representations. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by PaperPlayer

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.09.21.508959v1?rss=1 Authors: Frighetto, G., Frye, M. A. Abstract: Tracking visual objects while stabilizing the visual background is complicated by the different computational requirements for object tracking and motion vision. In fruit fly, directionally selective motion detectors T4 and T5 cells supply wide-field neurons of the lobula plate, which control smooth gaze stabilization behavior. Here, we hypothesized that an anatomically parallel pathway supplied by T3, which encodes small moving objects and innervates the lobula, drives body saccades toward objects. We combined physiological and behavioral experiments to show that T3 neurons respond omnidirectionally to contrast changes induced by the visual stimuli that elicit tracking saccades, and silencing T3 reduced the frequency of tracking saccades. By contrast, optogenetic manipulation of T3 increased the number of tracking saccades. Our results represent the first evidence that parallel motion detection and feature detection pathways coordinate smooth gaze stabilization and saccadic object tracking behavior during flight. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by PaperPlayer

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.08.24.505091v1?rss=1 Authors: Kirchner, J., Watson, T., Bauer, J., Lappe, M. Abstract: Vision requires that we rotate our eyes frequently to look at informative structures in the scene. Eye movements are planned by the brain but their execution depends on the mechanical properties of the oculomotor plant, i.e, the arrangement of eyeball position, muscle insertions and pulley locations. Therefore, the biomechanics of rotations is sensitive to eyeball translation because it changes muscle levers. Eyeball translations are little researched as they are difficult to measure with conventional techniques. Here we study the effects of eyeball translation on the coordination of gaze rotation by high-speed MRI recordings of saccadic eye movements during blinks, which are known to produce strong translations. We found that saccades during blinks massively overshoot their targets, and that these overshoots occur in a transient fashion such that the eye is back on target at the time the blink ends. These dynamic overshoots were tightly coupled to the eyeball translation, both in time and in size. Saccades made without blinks were also accompanied by small amounts of transient eyeball retraction, the size of which scaled with saccade amplitude. These findings demonstrate the complex interaction between rotation and translation movements of the eye. The mechanical consequences of eyeball translation on oculomotor control should be considered along with the neural implementation in the brain to understand the generation of eye movements and their disorders. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by PaperPlayer

Pourquoi les saccades oculaires nous font rater plusieurs heures d'images par jour ? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pourquoi les saccades oculaires nous font rater plusieurs heures d'images par jour ? Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Quizmasters Lee and Marc are joined by Dallas to answer a general knowledge trivia quiz with topics including Art, Games, Geography, Disney, Insects, Sports Teams, U.S. History and more! Round One ART - Francisco Goya is famous for his painting depicting a Roman god devouring his son? BOARD GAMES - Person/Place/Animal, Object, Action, Difficult, and All Play are subjects in what board game that was first published by Angel Games in 1985 (and by Mattel upon its acquisition in 2001)? STREAMING SERVICES - First going live in March, 2022, what video-streaming service was discontinued after 30 days? LIQUEUR - What star anise liqueur is named after the Italian word for Elderberry? DISNEY AFTERNOON - First debuting in 1987, what was the first Disney Afternoon show to have its own video game adaptation? U.S. HISTORY - The U.S. flag was first flown on foreign soil in what country during the revolutionary war? Round Two GEOGRAPHY - The Salar de Atacama, the largest Salt Flat in South America can be found in which country? THE BIBLE - According to The Bible, who died at the age of 930? ACTORS - Who appeared in The Beach, Vanilla Sky, Burn After Reading, Snowpiercer, and Avengers: Endgame? CHICAGO SPORTS TEAMS - What Chicago sports team got their name in 1922 after moving from Decatur and was inspired by the name of an already established team from the Windy City)? INSECTS - An insect of the order diptera is more commonly called a what? U.S. HISTORY - What is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States? Rate My Question ARCHITECTURE - What is the portmanteau for a building designer that has reached celebrity status? Final Questions OPTICS - The Fresnel Lens is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin Jean Fresnel for use in what? FRENCH TERMS - Saccade, from the French word for "jerk," is a quick movement associated with which part of the body? Upcoming LIVE Know Nonsense Trivia Challenges May 18th, 2022 - Know Nonsense Challenge - Point Ybel Brewing Co. - 7:30 pm EDT May 19th, 2022 - Know Nonsense Trivia Challenge - Ollie's Pub Records and Beer - 7:30 pm EDT You can find out more information about that and all of our live events online at KnowNonsenseTrivia.com All of the Know Nonsense events are free to play and you can win prizes after every round. Thank you Thanks to our supporters on Patreon. Thank you, Quizdaddies – Gil, Brandon, Adam V., Tommy (The Electric Mud) and Tim (Pat's Garden Service) Thank you, Team Captains – Matthew, Captain Nick, Grant, Mo, Rick G., Skyler, Dylan, Lydia, Gil, David, Aaron, Kristen & Fletcher Thank you, Proverbial Lightkeepers – Trent, Justin M., Robb, Rikki, Jon Lewis, Moo, Tim, Nabeel, Patrick, Jon, Adam B., Ryan, Mollie, Lisa, Alex, Spencer, Kaitlynn, Manu, Luc, Hank, Justin P., Cooper, Elyse, Sarah, Karly, Kristopher, Josh, Lucas Thank you, Rumplesnailtskins – Issa, Nathan, Sai, Cara, Megan, Christopher, Brandon, Sarah, FoxenV, Laurel, A-A-Ron, Loren, Hbomb, Alex, Kevin and Sara, Tiffany, Allison, Paige, We Do Stuff, Kenya, Jeff, Eric, Steven, Efren, Mike J., Mike C., Mike. K If you'd like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content, please visit http://theknowno.com and click "Support." Special Guest: Dallas.

Die Brainwashed - Radio Edition ist eine einstündige Show mit Musik von den Künstlern und Labels auf Brainwashed.com. 1. Meat Beat Manifesto, "Nuclear Bomb (Radio Edit)" (Les Editions Confidentielles Volume 3) 1995 Les Editions Confidentielles 2. Mercury Tracer, "XXV" (I - L) 2021 Everyday Ago 3. Daniel Bachman, "Blues In The Anthropocene" (Axacan) 2021 Three Lobed 4. Andy Stott, "Never The Right Time" (Never The Right Time) 2021 Modern Love 5. Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles, "Joy Ride" (Keys) 2021 Drag City 6. Bernadette Carroll, "Heavenly" (Heavenly / Laughing On the Outside) 1964 Cleopatra / 2021 Numero Group 7. Nurse With Wound, "Easy Snapping" (Who Can I Turn To Stereo (Two Golden Microphones)) 1996 United Dairies 8. John Duncan, "Homecoming" (Soft Eyes) 2021 Ideal 9. Windy and Carl, "Lighthouse" (Drawing Of Sound) 1996 Blue Flea 10. Saccades, "Islands Past" (Flowing Fades) 2021 Fuzz Club 11. Signs Ov Chaos, "Kode Ov Thee Phuture" (Frankenscience (Urban Cyberphunk)) 1996 Earache 12. James Welburn, "Sleeper In The Void (feat. Tomas Jarmyr)" (Sleeper in the Void) 2021 Miasmah 13. Patrick Belaga, "Rust" (Blutt) 2021 PAN 14. Populous, "Luna Liquida" (Stasi) 2021 La Tempesta Dischi 15. Black Light District, "Blue Rats" (A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room) 1996 Eskaton 16. Current 93, "Patripassian" (All the Pretty Little Horses) 1996 Durtro * Sendung vom 18. April 2021 ## Brainwashed - Radio Edition Email podcast at brainwashed dot com to say who you are; what you like; what you want to hear; share pictures for the podcast of where you're from, your computer or MP3 player with or without the Brainwashed Podcast Playing; and win free music! We have no tracking information, no idea who's listening to these things so the more feedback that comes in, the more frequent podcasts will come. You will not be put on any spam list and your information will remain completely private and not farmed out to a third party. Thanks for your attention and thanks for listening. * http://brainwashed.com

Here is the list of artists played in this episodeLine up:Luna Rosa: In the centre of PrideClear vinyl: Show me how to liveOdeons: not the oneHollows: adviceLines of flight: I remember everythingSaccades: Island pastSenses: Let me inEnjoy! Thanks for listening and subscribing!#indiemusic #newmusic #podcast #purplmacEnjoy! Thanks for listening and subscribing! Say Hi on @purplemacpodcast on insta. https://www.instagram.com/purplemacpodcast/

Nos yeux sont agités de saccades oculaires plusieurs fois par seconde. Il s'agit le plus souvent d'un mouvement réflexe, dont nous n'avons pas conscience. Ces mouvements rapides des yeux ont une fonction précise, mais ils nous rendent aveugles deux heures par jour !Des mouvements réflexes très rapidesCes saccades oculaires sont très fréquentes. En effet, elles se produisent entre 3 et 5 fois par seconde. La plupart sont des mouvements réflexes, mais il existe également des saccades volontaires.En dehors de celles-ci, le sujet n'a donc pas de prise sur la vitesse et la durée d'une saccade oculaire. Ces mouvements sont extrêmement rapides, puisqu'ils peuvent atteindre 900 degrés de rotation par seconde.En principe, leur amplitude varie en fonction de l'activité de la personne. Elle est par exemple plus réduite au moment de la lecture. Enfin, les saccades oculaires se font surtout horizontalement.Des saccades oculaires très utilesLes saccades oculaires nous permettent d'avoir une vision nette de tout ce que nous voyons. Pour comprendre ce processus, il faut savoir que notre œil ne perçoit avec netteté que le centre de la scène. Tout ce qui est autour demeure dans le flou.Mais notre cerveau a mis au point des stratagèmes pour pallier cette apparente déficience de notre vision. En effet, nos yeux se déplacent tout autour du centre de notre champ visuel pour enregistrer les images et les amener vers la partie centrale de l'œil, où elles retrouveront toute leur netteté.Or, ces changements de direction de la vision sont rendus possibles par les saccades oculaires. Elles ont une autre utilité. Elles coupent la vision durant le mouvement des yeux. Si elles ne le faisaient pas, nous verrions des images floues, comme celles qu'enregistre une caméra qui se déplace rapidement.Autrement dit, nous ne voyons plus rien à chaque fois que se produisent ces saccades oculaires. Mais nous ne nous en rendons pas compte, tant la durée de cet aveuglement provisoire est infime.Mises bout à bout, ces fractions de seconde représentent pourtant deux heures chaque jour. Nous sommes donc atteints d'une cécité quotidienne sans même nous en apercevoir. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Enjoying the show? Please support BFF.FM with a donation. Playlist 0′00″ Effets de Serres I by Lieven Martens on Serrisme (Edições CN) 0′48″ Feathers by Roy Of The Ravers on White Sunrise II.I (Le Roy Soleil) (emotional response) 6′55″ What For by Dearly Departure on Identity Grief (self released) 10′32″ You Going by Pedro Singery on Death For Never (confuso editions) 12′50″ Something About You (feat. Dent May) by Eyedress on Mulholland Drive (Lex Records Ltd) 15′14″ Remember Blushing by Charles on Let's Start a Family Tonight (Babe City Records) 19′40″ Bitter Streets by Sault on Nine (Forever Living Originals) 23′33″ Heartbeat Summer by NUBACK on Summer Breaks (we vinyl) 26′55″ On Your Mind by Saccades on Flowing Fades (Fuzz Club Records) 30′25″ Just a Step Behind by Great Pagans on Apathy - Single (Cupboard Music / Anti-Ghost Moon Ray) 34′20″ Vcl XI by Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark on Organisation (Virgin Records Limited) 38′05″ Change by Tears for Fears on The Hurting (Mercury Records Limited) 42′15″ Colores by Frythm & Cé Cicada on Flow Remixes (SXN) 45′00″ Leave by Sofie & Speckman on Chill Pill III (Public Possession) 49′35″ In My Mind (feat. Denitia) by POSY on Abroad (Bastard Jazz Recordings) 53′45″ Fora by Southern Shores on Fora (Cascine) 57′35″ Another Lover (Octo Octa's River Flow Mix) by Little Dragon on New Me, Same Us Remix (Ninja Tune) 65′50″ Hidden by Horizons (feat. Morgane Diet) by Lone on Always Inside Your Head (Greco-Roman Ltd) 70′30″ Unknown Dance (feat. Achico) [Vocal Version] by speedometer. on Unknown Dance (Jun Records) 75′50″ Want To Go by Council on One Hundred Nights (Polychrome Audio) 82′06″ Silk Surface (Dub Mix) by fleet.dreams on Silk Surface (Dub Mix) - Single (Leopard Cage) 88′00″ 숨(Breath) by Mogwaa & Xin Seha on Chill Pill III (Public Possession) 93′55″ Soap Opera by (((sssurrounddd))) on Soap Opera - Single (Jun Records) 96′27″ Nabi (feat. OHHYUK) by Peggy Gou on Nabi (feat. OHHYUK) (Gudu Records) 100′18″ Histoire d'un soir (Bye bye les galères) [Version originale 1983] by Bibi Flash on Best of Bibi Flash Collector (Le meilleur des années 80) (Musiques & Solutions) 104′45″ Will U by Nice Girl on Chill Pill III (Public Possession) 109′45″ Wake up by DIDI HAN on Wake Up (Roche Musique) 113′10″ Tell Me by Mira Lo on Happy House, Vol. 3 (Happiness Therapy) 116′16″ I Felt Love by Blue Hawaii on Under 1 House (Arbutus Records Inc.) Check out the full archives on the website.

Episode 516: April 18, 2021 playlist: Meat Beat Manifesto, "Nuclear Bomb (Radio Edit)" (Les Editions Confidentielles Volume 3) 1995 Les Editions Confidentielles Mercury Tracer, "XXV" (I - L) 2021 Everyday Ago Daniel Bachman, "Blues In The Anthropocene" (Axacan) 2021 Three Lobed Andy Stott, "Never The Right Time" (Never The Right Time) 2021 Modern Love Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles, "Joy Ride" (Keys) 2021 Drag City Bernadette Carroll, "Heavenly" (Heavenly / Laughing On the Outside) 1964 Cleopatra / 2021 Numero Group Nurse With Wound, "Easy Snapping" (Who Can I Turn To Stereo (Two Golden Microphones)) 1996 United Dairies John Duncan, "Homecoming" (Soft Eyes) 2021 Ideal Windy and Carl, "Lighthouse" (Drawing Of Sound) 1996 Blue Flea Saccades, "Islands Past" (Flowing Fades) 2021 Fuzz Club Signs Ov Chaos, "Kode Ov Thee Phuture" (Frankenscience (Urban Cyberphunk)) 1996 Earache James Welburn, "Sleeper In The Void (feat. Tomas Jarmyr)" (Sleeper in the Void) 2021 Miasmah Patrick Belaga, "Rust" (Blutt) 2021 PAN Populous, "Luna Liquida" (Stasi) 2021 La Tempesta Dischi Black Light District, "Blue Rats" (A Thousand Lights In A Darkened Room) 1996 Eskaton Current 93, "Patripassian" (All the Pretty Little Horses) 1996 Durtro Email podcast at brainwashed dot com to say who you are; what you like; what you want to hear; share pictures for the podcast of where you're from, your computer or MP3 player with or without the Brainwashed Podcast Playing; and win free music! We have no tracking information, no idea who's listening to these things so the more feedback that comes in, the more frequent podcasts will come. You will not be put on any spam list and your information will remain completely private and not farmed out to a third party. Thanks for your attention and thanks for listening.

A review of pediatric oculomotor testing and what you can do in the clinic! Follow us on Instagram: @adoseofdizzypodcast References: 1. Doettl, S. M., & McCaslin, D. L. (2018, August). Contemporary Concepts in Pediatric Vestibular Assessment and Management: Oculomotor Assessment in Children. In Seminars in hearing (Vol. 39, No. 3, p. 275). Thieme Medical Publishers. 2. Sinno, S., Najem, F., Smith Abouchacra, K., Perrin, P., & Dumas, G. (2020). Normative Values of Saccades and Smooth Pursuit in Children Aged 5 to 17 Years. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

The Relationship between Saccades and Locomotion with Dr. PolitzerDr. Politzer bio: Dr. Politzer is a leading optometric expert in diagnosing and treating vision problems in neurologic disease. For more than 38 years he has been caring for patients and presently staffs and runs his own private practice, Neuro-Sight Visioncare and vision clinics at multiple hospitals in Colorado and is also a consultant to many groups. He has had numerous presentations and publications on Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation. He also has many inventions which include:·The Vufine Visual Field Awareness System: a novel digital approach for enhancing visual field awareness after loss. ·The Beam Splitter: a novel approach for enhancing visual field awareness after loss. A SONAR based approach to enhance awareness of visual field loss. ·The Cyclo Prism for treatment of rotational strabismus following Cranial Nerve IV injury. ·The Spot Patch, partial and selective occlusion for the treatment and management of double vision  Dr. Politzer said when he was teaching a course with a colleague a few years ago, he walked into Mayo hospital and he saw their moto which expresses his feeling  about health care.  "The Best interest of the Patient is the Only Interest". And I hope this is why everyone is listening today. To learn more for the interest of our patients or if you are a patient to learn and empower what you can do for yourself.Resources:If you want to watch eye movement videos about a wide range of problems and neurologic disease go to the, NOVEL, website.  https://novel.utah.eduTo view Shirley Wray's lecture   https://novel.utah.edu/Wray/ocular_motility.php.  Other great resources on gaze training •Gunn SM, Lajoie K, Zebehazy KT, Strath RA, Neima DR, Marigold DS. Mobility-Related Gaze Training in Individuals With Glaucoma: A Proof-of-Concept Study. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2019;8(5):23. Published 2019 Oct 9. doi:10.1167/tvst.8.5.23.•  Lajoie K, Miller AB, Strath RA, Neima DR, Marigold DS. Glaucoma-related differences in gaze behavior when negotiating obstacles. Trans Vis Sci Tech. 2018;7:10      

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.07.05.188458v1?rss=1 Authors: Zhang, X., Jones, C. M., Golomb, J. D. Abstract: Visual signals are initially processed as two-dimensional images on our retina. In daily life, we make frequent eye movements and consequently the 2D retinal inputs constantly change. In addition, to perceive a 3D world, depth information needs to be reconstructed, using cues such as the binocular disparity between the 2D retinal images from both eyes. How do saccades influence the brain representation of 3D spatial locations? In an fMRI scanner, while wearing red-green anaglyph glasses to facilitate 3D perception, participants passively viewed a random dot patch that stimulated one of four 3D locations in each 16-second block. Each location was defined by its 2D position (above or below screen center; vertical information), and its depth position (in front of or behind central screen plane). We compared the amount of 2D and depth information (using multivariate pattern analysis) for no-saccade blocks (in which participants maintained stationary fixation) compared to saccade blocks (a series of guided saccades). In saccade blocks, we could decode vertical and depth information to a similar extent as in no-saccade blocks, despite the retinal changes in horizontal position induced by the saccades. Strikingly, no-saccade blocks exhibited a strong dependence on fixation position: little vertical or depth information could be decoded across blocks with different fixation positions in any visual areas during stable fixation. In contrast, on saccade blocks, both vertical and depth information were tolerant of changes in fixation position. The findings suggest that representations of 3D spatial locations may become more tolerant of fixation positions during "dynamic" saccades, perhaps due to active remapping which may encourage more stable representations of the world. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.05.10.087270v1?rss=1 Authors: Zhang, X., Golomb, J. D. Abstract: We can focus visuospatial attention by covertly attending to relevant locations, moving our eyes, or both simultaneously. How does shifting versus holding covert attention during fixation compare with maintaining covert attention across saccades? We acquired fMRI data during a combined saccade and covert attention task. On Eyes-fixed trials, participants either held attention at the same initial location ("hold attention") or shifted attention to another location midway through the trial ("shift attention"). On Eyes-move trials, participants made a saccade midway through the trial, while maintaining attention in one of two reference frames: The "retinotopic attention" condition involved holding attention at a fixation-relative location but shifting to a different screen-centered location, whereas the "spatiotopic attention" condition involved holding attention on the same screen-centered location but shifting relative to fixation. We localized the brain network sensitive to attention shifts (shift > hold attention), and used multivoxel pattern time course analyses to investigate the patterns of brain activity for spatiotopic and retinotopic attention. In the attention shift network, we found transient information about both whether covert shifts were made and whether saccades were executed. Moreover, in the attention shift network, both retinotopic and spatiotopic conditions were represented more similarly to shifting than to holding covert attention. An exploratory searchlight analysis revealed additional regions where spatiotopic was relatively more similar to shifting and retinotopic more to holding. Thus, maintaining retinotopic and spatiotopic attention across saccades may involve different types of updating that vary in similarity to covert attention "hold" and "shift" signals across different regions. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.05.03.072322v1?rss=1 Authors: Oz, R., Edelman Klapper, H., Nivinsky Margalit, S., Slovin, H. Abstract: Intra cortical microstimulation (ICMS) in the primary visual cortex (V1) can generate the visual perception of phosphenes and evoke saccades directed to the stimulated location in the retinotopic map. Although ICMS is widely used, little is known about the evoked spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity and their relation to neural responses evoked by visual stimuli or saccade generation. To investigate this, we combined ICMS with Voltage Sensitive Dye Imaging in V1 of behaving monkeys and measured neural activity at high spatial (meso-scale) and temporal resolution. Small visual stimuli and ICMS evoked population activity spreading over few mm that propagated to extrastriate areas. The population responses evoked by ICMS showed faster dynamics and different spatial propagation patterns. Neural activity was higher in trials w/saccades compared with trials w/o saccades. In conclusion, our results uncover the spatio-temporal patterns evoked by ICMS and their relation to visual processing and saccade generation. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

In this episode, guest Jay Thomas, Senior Assessment Designer at ACT, discusses how eye-tracking can go beyond psychometrics to evaluate and validate assessment and testing. There are several parts to eye-tracking. The first is saccades, the rapid eye movements made during reading that don't always follow left-to-right. It's estimated that humans make over 100,000 saccades daily, including during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep cycles when we're dreaming. Other obvious parts are fixations, which are fixed moments when the eyes are concentrated on a particular location, and blinking. An important piece of eye-tracking that has been around for decades but has only recently become easier to study is pupillometry, the measurement of pupil dilation. Dilation can be interpreted to measure thinking and cognitive effort, in particular the size changes and acceleration of dilation. Pupil dilation is also an autonomic bodily response. Unlike breathing or heart rates, which can be modified to trick lie detectors you cannot fake or consciously control dilating your pupils. Thomas says that eye-tracking goes beyond psychometrics to validate tests and give insight into cognitive thought processes. With Langenfeld, Zhu, and Morris, he created a formula to measure Total Cognitive Effort (TCE) for test items. Jay walks us through the TCE formula in the podcast. Mr. Thomas was a science teacher for 19 years and also worked for Kaplan Test Prep before coming to ACT.

La dyslexie est un trouble spécifique de la lecture qui touche jusqu’à 10% des enfants. La lecture fait appel à de nombreux mécanismes dont les mouvements oculaires qui sont au centre de la recherche de notre invité, Maria Pia Bucci. N’hésitez pas à mettre des commentaires et 5 étoiles sur iTunes/Apple Podcast, c’est très important...

Did you know that the sense of sight has a huge impact on your business? About a quarter of our brains are involved in visual processing. This behavioral economics podcast is all about the sense of sight. I share the surprising truth about what percentage of the body’s sense receptors are in the eyes and why our subconscious is so visual and the impact that has on our businesses. This is the beginning of a series on the five senses – beginning with sight and moving through sound, touch, taste and smell (not necessarily in that order). I am starting with sight because it is the most powerful of our senses by far and the things I am going to share with you in this episode are going to just blow your mind. CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE DOWNLOAD! Show Notes [14:48] There is so much more to know thank you think about the sense of sight and how it absolutely impacts your business. [15:23] I'm beginning with sight, because it's the most impactful. About a quarter of our brains are involved with visual processing. [16:05] About 70% of the body's sense receptors are in our eyes. This is why our subconscious is so visual. [17:11] Is vision in your eyes or in your brain? [17:24] The sense of SIGHT takes place in the eyes. It is all the little bits of information coming into them. But Vision? Vision does not actually happen in your eyes. VISION is in your BRAIN and is much more complex than simple sight. [17:56] Vision is actually built on expectations in the brain based on past experience. [18:39] The sense of sight is bringing in a lot of stimuli it can’t actually interact with – light, color, contrast – in a big flood of information all the time. The process of INTERPRETING that information is a task for the brain. [20:30] When we present our product data for our business, people's brains will fill in the gaps and tie things together. [21:47] Inside the retina are photoreceptors – perhaps you have heard of the rods and cones in your eye. They are shaped differently (hence their different names) because they do different things: rods are sensitive to dark versus light and cones are sensitive to color. [22:57] Color Illusions can trick the brain into thinking that it sees a different color. [24:30] FOCUS Our eyes interpret information with the highest resolution in the middle. [26:19] Impressionistic paintings were styled because of diseases in the eye. Monet's early work was full of blues and purples that were absent in later work. Brush strokes became thicker, because he had cataracts. [28:07] Degas developed retinal disease at the age of 36, and he could not be in intense light. [28:38] When we see a Monet or a Degas you still know what the images are. Our brains piece together what they are looking at based on prior experience. [29:33] Our brains are actually conditioned to see and pick out faces. This can either be to see predators, or understand allies. [30:14] Being able to focus forward is what creates our depth perception. This is why optical illusions and a drawing on a flat sheet of paper can look three-dimensional to us. [31:47] Binocular disparity is this state of two eyes pointing in the same direction from slightly different spots (test it by looking at objects through different eyes and watch how they appear to move). [33:03] With 3D images one side is red and the other side is blue (cyan). With 3D glasses, one side takes in each color making things appear three-dimensional. [36:02] Our brains are constantly scanning and interpreting information. We scan the world around us three times every second. [37:02] This is why priming impacts behavior and ads have impact on people even though they say they don't watch them. [37:42] Our brains take things in but don't alert the conscious brain unless there's a reason to. [38:17] Remember vision is in our brains. We have evolved so we can focus on one thing while constantly scanning our environment. [38:45] Saccades are why things like flip books work – our brain weaves together a stream of basically still images and connects the missing pieces. [40:24] When the actor on camera is supposed to be watching something go from one side of the shot to another, they need to actually watch someone (or something) go from one side to the other so the camera doesn’t pick up their eyes darting all over the place. [41:52] Our brains need to deploy selective attention to only flag the conscious brain of what matters. [46:58] What is reality? Do we all live in the same reality? Or is my reality different from yours? [48:20] Miscommunications come up often because we are unwilling to believe that our way is not the only way and that multiple people and perspectives can still be right. [49:18] Our brains can often attach meaning to all sorts of things when they aren’t there. [51:26] Our brain mostly thinks in images and emotions and processes them constantly and basically instantaneously. [52:00] When it comes to your brand and business it is worth investing in great images. DO NOT use clip art or stretch out images to fit a size so that your logo or a person’s face is stretched out. The brain picks up on the discrepancy immediately and assumes you are amateur. [53:39] You can say MORE with a lot LESS if you have a strong and strategic image with a lot less WORDS. [54:58] Basically, everything has too much copy. We need to decide the ONE THING to focus on and then put everything into that effort. [56:51] Our life is a string of memories – including the way we interact with brands. Brands are memories. And because the memory is heavily composed of visuals and emotions – the visuals you choose to use will impact how people think of you, your business, and your brand. [59:26] Be intentional about what people see when you create a video or when they walk into your store or place of business. Thanks for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Android. If you like what you heard, please leave a review on iTunes and share what you liked about the show. Links and Resources: Estate Planning Mom on Instagram BizChix on Instagram Britt Joiner on Instagram The Knotted Wood @theBrainyBiz on Facebook Episode 11. Behavioral Economics Foundations: Anchoring and Adjustment The Buying Brain The Science Behind the Dress Colour Illusion Optical Illusions Show How We See | Beau Lotto Seeing the World as it Isn't | Daniel Simons | TEDxUIUC Eye Diseases Changed Great Painters' Vision of Their Work Later in Their Lives How 3D Glasses Work How Does This Work? Stare at the Red Dot and See the Woman in Full Color on the Wall How Do Our Brains Reconstruct the Visual World? Episode 18. Behavioral Economics Foundations: Priming Episode 15: Behavioral Economics Foundations: Availability How Vision Works Prefontaine Selective Attention Test The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us

Eyeball anatomy All the important parts, wherever they are! Who really cares anyway we’re only here for two in particular: the iris and the retina. The retinal blind spot. Creationism And intelligent design. Are wrong. Reaching conclusions and working backwards for fun and profit. Young Earth creationism. Dan’s religious upbringing. Irreducible complexity. Faulty reasoning. The evolution of the modern vertebrate eyeball Fish and their goofy eyeball arrangements. The crazy Charlie eyeball progress chart. Light sensitive flat patches, pits, enclosures, open pinhole eyeballs, lenses, and flexing your sphincters. Dan’s episode on Three-D Vision. Pepe Silvia eyeball evolution. Comparative eyeball studies Human eyes are pretty sweet! But there other ones that do other things (at their own local summits on Mount Improbable) and are also really good at stuff! Goats, sharks, snakes (sorta), bees. Removing your lenses for fun and profit. Monet’s lens removal and ultraviolet perception. Eyeball shortcomings Common “colorblindness” is a misnomer, but “color discernment syndrome” doesn’t flow as well. Retinal wiring and the “blind spot.” Saccades. “Chronostasis” or “the stopped clock illusion” and the tight coupling of our eyes and our brains. Bio-identification Selecting scanning sites for statistical uniqueness and natural resistance to hacking. The insufficiency of fingerprints. Iris scans. Retinal scans. Bio-identification security. Ease of use. Rationality Rationalism/spiritualism/etc. The rational scientific worldview and self-correction. The absolution of new knowledge. Richard Dawkins demonstrates the evolution of the eye: YouTube Daniel James Barker's Podcast: Uncertainty Principle the Podcast Welcome, Marty - a special short episode: Uncertainty Principle The Podcast Support the show!

How have researchers used virtual environments to distort reality, disobey gravity, create conflicting feedback, and alter an athlete’s perception in the name of science? How have they effectively brought rate events in sports into the lab?   Articles/links: Behavior of College Baseball Players in a Virtual Batting Task Perceiving and Acting upon Spaces in a VR Rugby Task: Expertise Effects in Affordance Detection and Task Achievement Virtual reality as a tool for the study of perception– action: the case of running to catch fly balls Catching fly balls in virtual reality: A critical test of the outfielder problem How soccer players head the ball: A test of optic acceleration cancellation theory with virtual reality Saccades to future ball location reveal memory-based prediction in a virtual-reality interception task Virtual Thrower Versus Real Goalkeeper: The Influence of Different Visual Conditions on Performance A Model of Motor Inhibition for a Complex Skill: Baseball Batting How Do Batters Use Visual, Auditory, and Tactile Information About the Success of a Baseball Swing? “As soon as the bat met the ball, I knew it was gone”: Outcome prediction, hindsight bias, and the representation and control of action in expert and novice baseball players How information guides movement: Intercepting curved free kicks in soccer Visuo-motor delay, information–movement coupling, and expertise in ball sports   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Subscribe in iOS/Apple Subscribe in Anroid/Google   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com

Functional Neurology looks at the underlying functioning of the nervous system. While allopathic neurology can diagnose gross pathology such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury: functional neurology can pinpoint functioning of specific parts of the brain. Such studies include studies with the eyes (saccades (rapid movements from point to point), pupil reflexes) and other neurological assessments. Brain imbalances can be identified long before the pathology points to a specific diagnosis. Once brain imbalances are identified, individualized treatment plans can be prepared to reverse the damages. Periodic assessments can track the improved status of brain in response to treatment. The causes of such brain imbalances can be many such as toxins, infectious process such as lyme disease, metabolic disorders such as blood sugar irregularities and hormone imbalances. It is important to seek and treat the underlying cause as well.

Functional Neurology looks at the underlying functioning of the nervous system. While allopathic neurology can diagnose gross pathology such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury: functional neurology can pinpoint functioning of specific parts of the brain. Such studies include studies with the eyes (saccades (rapid movements from point to point), pupil reflexes) and other neurological assessments. Brain imbalances can be identified long before the pathology points to a specific diagnosis. Once brain imbalances are identified, individualized treatment plans can be prepared to reverse the damages. Periodic assessments can track the improved status of brain in response to treatment. The causes of such brain imbalances can be many such as toxins, infectious process such as lyme disease, metabolic disorders such as blood sugar irregularities and hormone imbalances. It is important to seek and treat the underlying cause as well.

Steven Galetta discusses his Review on how tests of visual function can be useful in the assessment of minor head injury and TBI.

Under natural conditions the head and the eye are both free to rotate about three mutuall orthogonal axes each (horizontal, vertical and torsional). Theoretically, these six degrees of freedom would allow any two-dimensional direction of the line of sight to be obtained by infinitely many torsional head and eye orientations. Yet, for any one gaze direction our brain chooses specific angles of torsion for the head and the eye. For steady fixation of distant targets with the head fixed and upright this observation is known as Donders' law (1847). It has been shown to hold independently of the direction of the rapid gaze shift (saccade) preceding a fixation. Surprisingly, despite considerable research on head and eye coordination the full implications of Donders' law still have not been analyzed for head-unrestrained gaze shifts. It has merely been studied whether torsional constraints hold, when gaze is returned repeatedly to the targets from single initial positions. The aim of this study was to see whether Donders' law holds after head-unrestrained saccades, independently of the saccade direction. Secondary objectives were to analyze whether the neural controls of the eye and the head are dependent or independent during this task and to collect and present control data for comparison with patient recordings in clinical context. Therefore, seven healthy human subjects made large head-unrestrained gaze shifts to a single set of visual targets during two separate conditions: 1) Repeated saccades to individual target positions from the same direction respectively (Star paradigm). 2) Repeated saccades to every target position from several different directions (Diamond paradigm). Three-dimensional orientations of head and eye were measured simultaneously with the magnetic search coil technique and consecutively plotted in three-dimensional space so that those orientations obeying Donders' law formed a surface. For each of the three body units the static orientations formed subspaces that resembled surfaces in the shape of twisted double saddles. Surfaces of head orientations had the most pronounced twist, eye in head surfaces were the most planar and surfaces of gaze orientations showed intermediate twist. The standard deviation of torsional residuals of the approximated surfaces (torsional thickness) was bigger for gaze than for the eye and smallest for the head. Head and eye torsion, as averaged over individual fixations, were correlated differently within every subject, but between subjects there was no correlation. In summary, neither surface shapes nor torsional thickness of gaze, head or eye differed between the two conditions (Star/Diamond). With this it is shown for the first time that Donders' law of torsional control holds true for gaze, head and eye orientations independently of the direction of the preceding saccade. The absence of correlation between head and eye torsion can be explained by independent controllers of head and eye movements. This yields a new, further argument supporting recent models of neuronal gaze control that are based on the assumption of independent head and eye controllers. Studies with patients carrying lesions in possible target structures of such neuronal controllers are needed to further investigate these models. Finally, clinically-diagnostic relevance of this study arises from the comparison to results of studies on gaze coordination after midbrain lesions where patients exhibit an altered form of Donders' law.

Three dimensional eye rotations were measured using the magnetic search coil technique in a patient with a lesion of the right rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (RIMLF) and in four control subjects. Up to 10° contralesional torsional deviations with each voluntary saccade were revealed, which also could be seen during bedside examination. There was no spontaneous nystagmus. Based on MRI criteria, the lesion involved the RIMLF but spared the interstitial nucleus of Cajal. To date, this deficit has not been described in patients. Our results support the hypothesis that the vertical--torsional saccade generator in humans is organised similarly as in monkeys: each RIMLF encodes torsional saccades in one direction, while both participate in vertical saccades.

Background: Saccadic eye velocity (SEV) has been shown to be a reliable neurophysiological tool for the assessment of gamma-aminobutyric acid GABA(A) receptor sensitivity. Administration of benzodiazepines targeting the GABA(A) receptor decreases SEV in healthy volunteers. Tiagabine is a new antiepileptic drug which acts via selective blockade of GABA reuptake. Therefore, we examined the effects of tiagabine on saccade parameters. Methods: SEV was analyzed in 8 healthy volunteers before and after 7 days of tiagabine treatment. Subjects received tiagabine in a daily dose of 15 mg. Saccades were measured using a noninvasive infrared oculographic device. Amplitude, latency, and SEV were analyzed as a function of treatment and target eccentricity. Results: SEV and saccade latency increased with target amplitude. Treatment with tiagabine had no significant effect on SEV and saccade amplitude. A trend was found for increased latencies after tiagabine. Conclusion: In contrast to findings with benzodiazepines, tiagabine treatment had no impact on SEV in healthy volunteers. The subchronic tolerance effects or the different site of action on the GABA(A)/BZD receptor complex may account for this deviating profile. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.

The relation between covert and overt spatial attention and saccadic eye movements was investigated in control subjects, Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients, and cerebellar patients in a dual-task paradigm. The main question was how different types of cues (reflexive/intentional) guide the spatial attention during fixation or during the preparation phase of a saccade. The subjects were asked to follow a reflexive or intentional cue, to discriminate a character that appeared either at the cued side (valid trials) or at the non-cued side (invalid trials), and to respond by pressing a joystick. The proportion of valid/invalid trials (cue relevance) was 75/25 and 50/50 for the control subjects, for the patients only the proportion 75/25 was used. All discrimination tasks were performed during the preparation of the saccade to the cued target and also during fixation. The results of the control subjects showed that discrimination of the character is always better at the cued side irrespective of the eye movement condition or the cue relevance, suggesting that spatial attention is engaged at the cued location even under fixation conditions and irrespective of the relevance of the cue. The results of the PD patients point to an intentional saccade impairment that does not correlate with the overall impairment in the attentional control. In the double task, also cerebellar patients showed an intentional saccade impairment that correlates with the deficit in the attentional control. After these experiments further research could investigate the impairment of the patients shown here is true for all cerebellar disorders.