Eye Anatomy, Eye Movements and Vision

This chapter introduces the basics of eye anatomy, eye movements and vision. It will explain the concepts behind human vision sufficiently for the reader to understand later chapters in the book on human perception and attention, and their relationship to (and potential measurement with) eye movements. We will first describe the path of light from the environment through the structures of the eye and on to the brain, as an introduction to the physiology of vision. We will then describe the image registered by the eye, and the types of movements the eye makes in order to perceive the environment as a cogent whole. This chapter explains how eye movements can be thought of as the interface between the visual world and the brain, and why eye movement data can be analysed not only in terms of the environment, or what is looked at, but also in terms of the brain, or subjective cognitive and emotional states. These two aspects broadly define the scope and applicability of eye movements technology in research and in human computer interaction in later sections of the book.