Spatial separation of two different pathways accounting for the generation of calcium signals in astrocytes.

Astrocytes integrate and process synaptic information and exhibit calcium (Ca2+) signals in response to incoming information from neighboring synapses. The generation of Ca2+ signals is mostly attributed to Ca2+ release from internal Ca2+ stores evoked by an elevated metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) activity. Different experimental results associated the generation of Ca2+ signals to the activity of the glutamate transporter (GluT).

An integrated model of fixational eye movements and microsaccades.

When we fixate a stationary target, our eyes generate miniature (or fixational) eye movements involuntarily. These fixational eye movements are classified as slow components (physiological drift, tremor) and microsaccades, which represent rapid, small-amplitude movements. Here we propose an integrated mathematical model for the generation of slow fixational eye movements and microsaccades.

Microsaccades are different from saccades in scene perception.

Eye-fixation durations are among the best and most widely used measures of ongoing cognition in visual tasks, e.g., reading, visual search or scene perception.

Hypothesis test for synchronization: twin surrogates revisited.

The method of twin surrogates has been introduced to test for phase synchronization of complex systems in the case of passive experiments. In this paper we derive new analytical expressions for the number of twins depending on the size of the neighborhood, as well as on the length of the trajectory. This allows us to determine the optimal parameters for the generation of twin surrogates.

Modeling the control of fixational eye movements with neurophysiological delays.

We propose a model for the control of fixational eye movements using time-delayed random walks. Fixational eye movements produce random displacements of the retinal image to prevent perceptual fading. First, we demonstrate that a transition from persistent to antipersistent correlations occurs in data recorded from a visual fixation task.

Microsaccades are triggered by low retinal image slip.

Even during visual fixation of a stationary target, our eyes perform rather erratic miniature movements, which represent a random walk. These "fixational" eye movements counteract perceptual fading, a consequence of fast adaptation of the retinal receptor systems to constant input. The most important contribution to fixational eye movements is produced by microsaccades; however, a specific function of microsaccades only recently has been found.