Jordan Pola, PhD

Distinguished Teaching Professor
Biological and Vision Sciences

Bio

Dr. Jordan Pola earned his B.S. in Philosophy and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Columbia University. After completing his doctoral research on visual perception and saccadic eye movements, he did postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on oculomotor brainstem neurophysiology. Dr. Pola came to SUNY College of Optometry in 1974 and is currently Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Biological and Vision Sciences. He is Instructor of Record in the Visual Function: Sensorimotor I course for second year OD students and teaches a variety of courses in the M.S. and Ph.D. vision science program and in the C-step program. Along with teaching, Dr. Pola has mentored many Research, M.S. and Ph.D. students. He has also served as a member of numerous College committees; as Chairperson of the Policy, Animal Care, Qualifications and Students Committees; and as Presiding Officer of the College Graduate Faculty. The recipient of Federal and SUNY research grants, Dr. Pola has published in the areas of oculomotor behavior (saccades, smooth pursuit, OKN and fixation), oculomotor neurophysiology, models of the oculomotor system, perceptual processes associated with eye movements, and stimulus control and dynamics of accommodation. He has been a reviewer and referee for Federal granting agencies and scientific journals concerned with vision, visuomotor behavior and neurophysiology, and has served as a member of the ARVO Scientific Advisory Committee and as a chairman of the ARVO Eye Movement Program Committee. He is currently a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the Vision Sciences Society and the Association for Psychological Science.

Education

  • PhD, Experimental Psychology , Columbia University, 1973
  • MA, Experimental Psychology , Columbia University, 1968
  • BS, Philosophy, Columbia University, 1966
  • , , The Juilliard School, 1961

Residency/Other Post Graduate Training

  • NIH Postdoctoral Fellow - Johns Hopkins Medical School, 1975

Awards/Honors

  • Distinguished Teaching Professor, State University of New York, 1997
  • State University of New York Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1993
  • SUNY College of Optometry Excellence in Teaching Award, 1978
  • SUNY College of Optometry Excellence in Teaching Award, 1977

Professional Experience

  • Distinguished Teaching Professor, SUNY College of Optometry, 1997 - Present
  • Full Professor, SUNY College of Optometry, 1984 - 1997
  • Associate Professor, SUNY College of Optometry, 1980 - 1984
  • Assistant Professor, SUNY College of Optomery, 1974 - 1980

Teaching Interests

1) Oculomotor behavior, mechanics and physiology
2) Control systems theory applied to neuroscience
3) Visual perceptual processes associated with eye movements

Courses Taught Most Recent Academic Year

Array Array
CSTEP

ELC 545
The Visual Perception of Location

BVS 271
Visual Function: Sensorimotor I

GM 251A
Advanced Topics in Oculomotor Systems

GM 231A
Proseminar: Introduction to Vision Science, Part II

ELC 545
The Visual Perception of Location

Array Array
CSTEP

ELC 545
The Visual Perception of Location

BVS 271
Visual Function: Sensorimotor I

GM 231A
Proseminar: Introduction to Vision Science, Part II

BVS 271
Visual Function: Sensorimotor I

Array Array
CSTEP

ELC 545
The Visual Perception of Location

BVS 271
Visual Function: Sensorimotor I

GM 251A
Advanced Topics in Oculomotor Systems

BVS 271FA
Visual Function: Sensorimotor I

BVS 271FALL
Visual Function: Sensorimotor I

ELC 545
The Visual Perception of Location

Research Interests

1) Oculomotor behavior (saccadic, smooth pursuit, optokinetic and fixation eye movements)
2) Oculomotor neurophysiology
3) Visual perception of location during saccadic eye movement
4) Visual perception of location and motion during smooth pursuit eye movement
5) Control systems models of visual perceptual processes associated with saccades
6) Control system models of visual perceptual processes associated with smooth pursuit
7) Models of the overall interaction of visual perceptual processes and the dynamics of oculomotor behavior

Clinical Interests

Functional and physiological basis of oculomotor disorders

Publications

  • An explanation of perisaccadic flash mislocalization when the flash occurs together with background stimuli,
  • Perisaccadic vision: perceived location of a target flash presented on a dark field as a function of eye position and time during and after a saccade,
  • Eye Movements, (second edition): 2020
  • An explanation of perisaccadic compression of visual space, Vision Research 51 424 - 434 424 - 434, 2011
  • A model of the mechanism for the perceived location of a single flash and two successive flashes presented around the time of a saccade, Vision Research (47): 2798 - 2813 2798 - 2813, 2007
  • Development of eye movements in infants, 2006
  • Models of the mechanism underlying perceived location of a perisaccadic flash, Vision Research 44 2799 - 2813 2799 - 2813, 2004
  • Models of the saccadic and smooth pursuit systems, 2002
  • The role of target position during pursuit deceleration and termination, Vision Research 41 655 - 669 655 - 669, 2001
  • A size illusion of the letter P, Vision Research 40 401 - 407 401 - 407, 2000
  • Offset of human smooth pursuit eye movements: effects of target presence and subject intention, Vision Research 37 2579 - 2595 2579 - 2595, 1997
  • OKN suppression by fixation of a stabilized target: the effect of OKN stimulus predictability, Vision Research 35 2903 - 2910. 2903 - 2910., 1995
  • Visual Fixation of a target and suppression of OKN: effects of varying target feedback, Vision Research 35 1079 - 1087 1079 - 1087, 1995
  • Smooth pursuit eye movement: velocity starts it; position stops it, 1994
  • Smooth pursuit eye movements with imaginary targets defined by extrafoveal cues, Visiion Research 34 803 - 820 803 - 820, 1994
  • Visual stabilization of gaze: the role of attention and cognitive processes, 1993
  • Suppression of optokinesis by a stabilized target: effects of instructions and stimulus frequency, Perception & Psychophysics 52 186 - 200 186 - 200, 1992
  • Smooth pursuit: response characteristics, stimuli, and mechanisms, 1991
  • Accommodation to size and blur changing in counterphase, Optometry and Vision Science 66 455 - 458 455 - 458, 1989
  • The oculomotor "twitch" a transient response to target motion, Experimental Brain Research 76 581 - 592 581 - 592, 1989
  • The perception of target motion during smooth pursuit eye movement in the open loop condition: characteristics of retinal and extraretinal signals, Vision Research 29 471 - 483 471 - 483, 1989
  • Passive suppression of optokinesis by stabilized targets, Vision Research 28 1023 - 1029 1023 - 1029, 1988
  • Predictive behavior of optokinetic eye movements, Experimental Brain Research 73 615 - 626 615 - 626, 1988
  • Target position: a stimulus for smooth pursuit eye movement in the monkey, 1987
  • Dioptric and non dioptric stimuli for accommodation: target size alone and with blur and chromatic aberration, Vision Research 27 555 - 567 555 - 567, 1987
  • Smooth eye movements with step ramp stimuli: the influence of attention and stimulus extent, Vision Research 27 1565 - 1580 1565 - 1580, 1987
  • Stimuli for accommodation: blur, chromatic aberration and size, Vision Research 26 957 - 971 957 - 971, 1986
  • Changing target size is a stimulus for accommodation, Journal of the Optical Society of America 2 l832 - l835 l832 - l835, 1985
  • Passive and active smooth eye movements: effects of stimulus size and location, Vision Research 25 l063 - l076 l063 - l076, 1985
  • A mechanism for suppression of optokinesis, Vision Research 24 l93l - l945 l93l - l945, 1984
  • Smooth pursuit eye movement in open loop and closed loop, Vision Research l0 ll2l - ll3l ll2l - ll3l, 1983
  • Slow eye movements to eccentric targets, Opththalmology and Visual Science 23 477 - 483 477 - 483, 1981
  • Vernier discrimination with sequentially flashed lines: roles of eye movements, retinal offsets and short term memory, Vision Research 21 647 - 656 647 - 656, 1981
  • Target position and velocity: the stimuli for smooth pursuit eye movements, Vision Research 20 523 - 534 523 - 534, 1980
  • The role of perceived motion in smooth pursuit eye movements, Vision Research l9 6l3 - 6l8 6l3 - 6l8, 1979
  • The conversion of signals in the vestibulo-ocular reflex, 1978
  • Oculomotor signals in the medial longitudinal fasciculus of the monkey, Journal of Neurophysiology 41 245 - 259 245 - 259, 1978
  • Pontomedullary reticular projections into the region of the ascending medial longitudinal fasciculus in cat, Experimental Brain Research 32 3l - 37 3l - 37, 1978
  • Cat pontomedullary reticular neurons projecting to the regions of the ascending MLF and the vestibular nuclei, 1977
  • Eye movements following autokinesis, Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society l0 397 - 398 397 - 398, 1977
  • Voluntary saccades, eye position, and perceived visual direction, 1976
  • Voluntary saccades, eye position, and perceived visual direction, 1976
  • An explanation of eye movements seen in internuclear ophthalmoplegia, Archives of Neurology 33 447 - 452 447 - 452, 1976
  • Vernier offset produced by rotary target motion, Perception & Psychophysics 20 138 - 142 138 - 142, 1976
  • Visual persistence: effects of flash luminance, duration, and energy, Vision Research l4 295 - 303 295 - 303, 1974
  • The relation of the perception of visual direction to eye position and time during and following a voluntary saccade, 1973
  • Visual perception of direction when voluntary saccades occur: II. Relation of visual direction of a fixation target extinguished before a saccade to a subsequent test flash presented before the saccade, Perception & Psychophysics 8 9 - l4 9 - l4, 1970

Presentations

  • A model of perceived location of a test flash presented before, during and after smooth pursuit eye movement, 2019
    Poster
  • Perceived location of a test-flash before, during and after smooth pursuit eye movement is not influenced by the presence of the pursuit target, 2018
    Poster
  • Perceived location of a pre-pursuit target when pursuit direction is predictable versus unpredictable and the target location varies, 2017
    Poster
  • Perceived location of a target-flash presented before, during and after smooth pursuit eye movement, 2016
    Poster
  • The relation of perisaccadic perceived location to eye position and time, 2014
    Poster
  • The influence of saccade adaptation on perceived location of the pre-saccadic fixation target and the saccadic goal target, 2013
    Poster
  • A model of perisaccadic target flash mislocalization when a background stimulus is continuously present before, during and after a saccade, 2012
    Poster
  • A model of the influence of temporal and spatial aspects of background stimuli on perisaccadic target- flash mislocalization, 2011
    Poster
  • Perisaccadic flash mislocalization depends on whether a background stimulus appears or disappears around the time of the flash, 2011
    Poster
  • A model of perisaccadic flash mislocalization in the presence of a simple background stimulus, 2010
    Poster
  • An explanation of perisaccadic flash mislocalization when the flash occurs together with background stimuli, 2010
    Poster
  • An explanation of perisaccadic compression of visual space, 2008
    Poster
  • Perisaccadic visual compression shown by target-flash mislocalization may be affected by flash visual persistence interacting with background stimuli, 2008
    Poster
  • Compression of visual space as shown by mislocalization of single flashes presented around the time of a saccade may come from a simple monotonic extraretinal signal whose onset time varies across the retinal, 2007
    Poster
  • The perceived location of one flash or two successive flashes at the time of a saccade involves an extraretinal signal that begins to change at the onset of or following the saccade, 2006
    Poster
  • Mislocalization of two successive perisaccadic flashes involves an extraretinal signal that begins to change at the onset of the saccade or shortly thereafter, 2005
    Poster
  • Models of the perceived location of a flash at the time of a saccade, 2005
    Oral Presentation
  • A model of the perceived locations of two successively flashes target presented during a saccade, 2003
    Oral Presentation
  • The extraretinal signal for saccade-contingent perceived location begins after and changes about as fast as the saccade, 2003
    Poster
  • Visual perception of direction during a saccade may involve an extravisual signal that changes as rapidly as the saccade, 2002
    Poster
  • The time course of the extraretinal signal for saccade-contingent perceived direction may be as fast as the saccade, 2001
    Poster
  • A letter-size illusion: perceived size of P is influenced by its relative vertical position, 1998
    Poster
  • How target jump affects offset of pursuit: a model simulation, 1997
    Poster
  • Offset of smooth pursuit: pursuit or fixation, 1997
    Poster
  • Offset response of the human pursuit system when a target jumps to the fovea: effects of jump size, 1996
    Poster
  • Dynamic response of the human smooth pursuit system to target position as stimulus, 1995
    Oral Presentation
  • Offset dynamics of human smooth pursuit eye movements: effects of foveal stimulation and subject intention, 1994
  • Offset of human smooth pursuit: effects of target velocity, position, and presence, 1994
    Poster
  • Smooth pursuit eye movement: velocity starts it; position stops it, 1993
    Oral Presentation
  • Smooth pursuit: started by velocity, ended by position, 1993
  • Determinism vs. free will in suppression of OKN with a stabilized target, 1992
  • A motion "space" defined by stimulus attributes employed during initiation of smooth pursuit, 1991
  • Chasing illusion: smooth pursuit of imaginary targets defined by extrafoveal cues, 1990
  • Chasing snark and snipe smooth pursuit of imaginary targets, 1990
  • Does suppression of OKN depend on knowing what the stimulus field will do next?, 1989
  • "Retinal slip" What is its role in the suppression of optokinesis?, 1988
  • Retinal slip serves to "fine tune" suppression of OKN, 1988
  • "Hypersuppression" of optokinesis: variation with frequency, 1987
  • Suppression of OKN without retinal error signals: effects of attentional mode and stimulus frequency, 1987
  • Chromatic cues for accommodation, 1986
  • The effect of different ways of attending to a target on the suppression of optokinesis, 1986
  • The oculomotor "twitch" mapping spatial and temporal properties of a transient response to motion, 1986
  • Active and passive responses to step ramp target motion, 1985
  • Monkey smooth pursuit eye movements to sine wave and square wave target motion under open loop conditions, 1985
  • Quantitative features of perceived target motion during smooth pursuit eye movements, 1985
  • Rashbass revisited: active and passive responses to step ramp target motion, 1985
  • Stimuli for accommodation: size and blur in counterphase, 1985
  • Target position can be a stimulus for monkey smooth pursuit eye movements, 1985
  • Target position: a stimulus for smooth pursuit eye movements in the monkey, 1985
  • What drives accommodation? Changing blur and size in opposition, 1985
  • Size is an effective stimulus for accommodation, 1984
  • Suppression of OKN without retinal error signals, 1984
  • Suppression of OKN without retinal error signals, 1984
  • Suppression of optokinesis by a stabilized target occurs without "looking at" the target, 1984
  • Size, blur and chromatic aberration are stimuli for accommodation, 1983
  • Stimuli for accommodation: blur, perceived distance and chromatic abberration, 1983
  • Suppression of OKN during visual fixation and pursuit, 1983
  • Suppression of OKN by fixation: role of relative target/background motion, 1982
  • Smooth pursuit eye movements in open and closed loop: a linear system, roughly speaking, 1981
  • Pursuit eye movements in response to stimulus velocity may be OKN, 1980
  • Smooth pursuit eye movements with the saccadic system rendered ineffective, 1980
  • Visual and internal control of pursuit eye movements, 1980
  • Smooth pursuit eye movement to stationary targets, 1979
  • Smooth pursuit eye movements: stimuli and mechanisms, 1979
  • Position and velocity: the stimuli for smooth pursuit eye movements, 1978
  • The role of perceived motion in smooth pursuit eye movements, 1978
  • Physiological detection of cat pontomedullary reticular neurons which ascend in the MLF or which project toward the vestibular nucleus, 1977
  • Target position and velocity: the stimuli for smooth pursuit eye movements, 1977
  • The conversion of signals in the vestibulo ocular reflex, 1977
  • An explanation of horizontal eye movements seen in internuclear ophthalmoplegia, 1976
  • An illusion of vernier offset produced by rotary target motion, 1975
  • MLF fiber activity during voluntary and vestibular eye movement, 1975
  • Pontine sources of medial longitudinal fasciculus fibers in the cat, 1975
  • MLF fiber activity in monkey during visually elicited and vestibular eye movements, 1974
  • The relation of perceived visual direction to eye position in the presence of a voluntary saccade, 1974
  • Changes of visual direction with voluntary saccadic eye movement: influence of visual persistence, 1972
  • The effects of eye position and time on the visual perception of direction when a voluntary saccade occurs, 1972
  • Visual persistence: effects of flash luminance, duration and energy, 1972
  • Relative visual direction of two flashes presented at different times and intensities during a voluntary saccade retinal: constraints on the operation of extraretinal signals, 1971
  • Visual direction of a flash presented during or following saccades of variable length to an 8 deg peripheral target: the effects of eye position on an extraretinal signal, 1971
  • The intermittent light illusion and constancy of visual direction during voluntary saccades, 1969
  • Direction of vernier offset, eye movements, and autokinetic movement, 1968
  • Visual perception of direction for stimuli flashed before, during, and after voluntary saccadic eye movement, 1968

Services

University

  • 2010 - Present : Array - Committee on Course and Standing
  • 1980 - 2016 : Array - Admissions Committee
  • 2012 - 2012 : Array - Search Committee for Chairman of Biological and Vision Science
  • 2000 - 2005 : Array - Students Committee of the Graduate Faculty (Chairperson)
  • 1993 - 1994 : Array - Policy Committee of the Graduate Faculty (Chairperson)
  • 1992 - 1993 : Array - Qualifications Committee of the Graduate Faculty (Chairperson)
  • 1976 - 1992 : Array - Animal Care Committee (Chairperson)
  • 1986 - 1989 : Array - Presiding Officer of the Graduate Faculty

Professional

  • 1980 - Present : Current Eye Research - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Experimental Brain Research - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Science, - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Journal of Neurophysiology - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Journal of Neuroscience - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Journal of Physiology - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Journal of Vision - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Optometry and Vision Science - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Perception and Psychophysics - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - Reviewer/Referee
  • 1980 - Present : Vision Research - Reviewer/Referee
  • 2004 - 2005 : (ARVO) Eye Movement Program Committee - Chairperson
  • 2003 - 2004 : (ARVO) Eye Movement Program Committee - Committee Member
  • 2003 - 2004 : (ARVO) Scientific Advisory Committee - Committee Member
  • 2002 - 2003 : (ARVO) Eye Movement Program Committee - Committee Member
  • 1980 - 1981 : (ARVO) Eye Movement Program Committee - Chairperson

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