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In vision science, a saccade (/səˈkɑːd/ sə-KAHD; French: [sakad]; French for 'jerk') is a quick, simultaneous movement of both eyes between two or more phases of focal points in the same direction.[1] In contrast, in smooth-pursuit movements, the eyes move smoothly instead of in jumps.[2] Controlled cortically by the frontal eye fields (FEF), or subcortically by the superior colliculus, saccades serve as a mechanism for focal points, rapid eye movement, and the fast phase of optokinetic nystagmus.[1] The word appears to have been coined in the 1880s by French ophthalmologist Émile Javal, who used a mirror on one side of a page to observe eye movement in silent reading, and found that it involves a succession of discontinuous individual movements.[3]