Non-contact eye-tracking on cats

The objective of visual systems neuroscience has shifted over the past few years from determining the receptive fields of cells towards the understand ing of higher level cognition in awake animals viewing natural stimuli. In experiments with awake animals it is important to control the relevant aspe cts of behavior. Most important for vision science is the control of the di rection of gaze. Here we present Dual Purkinje eye-tracking on cats, which- as a non-contact method-brings a number of advantages. Along with the prese nted methods for calibration and for synchronization to off-the-shelf video presentation hardware, this method allows high precision experiments to be performed on cats freely viewing videos of natural scenes. (C) 2001 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.