Eye-Movement Reinstatement

Studying eye-movement patterns as a window into memory recall

Overview

Eye movements during recall often retrace the spatial layout of the original experience—a phenomenon called eye-movement reinstatement. We study how these gaze patterns relate to the quality of memory retrieval and how they interact with neural reactivation measured by fMRI.

Key Questions

• Do the eyes “replay” the spatial structure of a remembered scene?
• Does fixation reinstatement support memory in older adults?
• How do eye-movement reinstatement and neural reactivation co-occur during mental imagery?

Selected Publications

• Wynn, J. S., Ryan, J. D., & Buchsbaum, B. R. (2020). Eye movements support behavioral pattern completion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• Bone, M. B., St-Laurent, M., Dang, C., McQuiggan, D. A., Ryan, J. D., & Buchsbaum, B. R. (2019). Eye movement reinstatement and neural reactivation during mental imagery. Cerebral Cortex.
• Wynn, J. S., Olsen, R. K., Binns, M. A., Buchsbaum, B. R., & Ryan, J. D. (2018). Fixation reinstatement supports visuospatial memory in older adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.
• Wynn, J. S., Bone, M. B., Dragan, M. C., Hoffman, K. L., Buchsbaum, B. R., & Ryan, J. D. (2016). Selective scanpath repetition during memory-guided visual search. Visual Cognition.

Code

• eyesim — R package for eye-movement similarity analysis