Humans and other primates are equipped with a foveated visual system. As a consequence, we reorient our fovea to objects and targets in the visual field that are conspicuous or that we consider relevant or worth looking at. These reorientations are achieved by means of saccadic eye movements. Where we saccade to depends on various low-level factors such as a targets’ luminance but also crucially on high-level factors like the expected reward or a targets’ relevance for perception and subsequent behavior. Here, we review recent findings how the control of saccadic eye movements is influenced by higher-level cognitive processes. We first describe the pathways by which cognitive contributions can influence the neural oculomotor circuit. Second, we summarize what saccade parameters reveal about cognitive mechanisms, particularly saccade latencies, saccade kinematics and changes in saccade gain. Finally, we review findings on what renders a saccade target valuable, as reflected in oculomotor behavior. We emphasize that foveal vision of the target after the saccade can constitute an internal reward for the visual system and that this is reflected in oculomotor dynamics that serve to quickly and accurately provide detailed foveal vision of relevant targets in the visual field.

人类和其他灵长类动物都配备有中央凹视觉系统。因此，我们将中央凹重新定位到视野中显眼的或我们认为相关或值得一看的物体和目标。这些重新定向是通过眼球扫视运动来实现的。我们扫视的位置取决于各种低级因素，例如目标的亮度，但也关键取决于高级因素，例如预期奖励或目标与感知和后续行为的相关性。在这里，我们回顾了最近的研究结果，即高级认知过程如何影响眼跳运动的控制。我们首先描述认知贡献影响神经动眼神经回路的途径。其次，我们总结了扫视参数揭示的认知机制，特别是扫视延迟、扫视运动学和扫视增益的变化。最后，我们回顾了使眼动目标有价值的研究结果，如动眼行为所反映的那样。我们强调，扫视后目标的中央凹视觉可以构成视觉系统的内部奖励，这反映在动眼神经动力学中，该动力学有助于快速、准确地提供视野中相关目标的详细中央凹视觉。