A practical guide to functional magnetic resonance imaging with simultaneous eye tracking for cognitive neuroimaging research

Abstract

The simultaneous acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with in-scanner eye tracking promises to combine the advantages of full-brain coverage of brain activity measurements with a fast and unobtrusive capture of eye movement behavior and attentional deployment. Despite its applicability to a wide variety of research questions, ranging from investigations of gaze control and attention guidance to the use of eye movement events as a response modality for gaze-contingent fMRI experiments, only few studies employ this kind of data acquisition. In this chapter we identify technical challenges, describe all necessary components and procedures for conducting such a study, and give practical advice on how these can be integrated in a common MRI laboratory setup. The chapter concludes with notes on the analysis of such datasets and summarizes key data properties and their implications of a joint analysis of fMRI and eye tracking data.