Date of Completion

5-11-2013

Embargo Period

5-15-2013

Advisors

Quing Zhu; Monty A. Escabi

Field of Study

Biomedical Engineering

Degree

Master of Science

Open Access

Open Access

Abstract

In current society, many people are at a high risk of suffering a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). The pathology of a concussion is related to neuronal dysfunction. It has been indicated that a diagnosis of MTBI can be provided by analyzing fast eye movements. This involves characterizing the neurosensory control of human visual and auditory system.

Saccades are very fast eye movements that allow the eyes to quickly move from one target or image to another. A saccadic eye movement can be triggered by either visual or auditory stimuli. In this work, saccades induced by visual, auditory and auditory-visual bisensory stimuli that provided in a horizontal plane were recorded and analyzed. Human saccade data was collected using a high speed eye tracking system, and analyzed with a program written in FORTRAN, which computed parameter estimates using system identification technique for a saccadic eye movement model. Saccade characteristics were investigated, and the results of saccadic eye movements elicited by the three different stimuli types were compared. Post saccade phenomena, which were caused by the post-inhibitory rebound burst of the antagonist motoneurons, were also explored.

Major Advisor

John D. Enderle

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