saccade

saccade, fast, intermittent eye movement that redirects gaze. Saccades may involve the eyes alone or, more commonly, the eyes and the head. Their function is to place the fovea, the central region of the retina where vision is most acute, onto the images of parts of the visual scene of interest. Their duration and peak velocity vary systematically with their size. The smallest “microsaccades” move the eye through only a few minutes of arc (one...