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Liu X, Melcher D, Carrasco M, Hanning NM. Pre-saccadic Preview Shapes Post-Saccadic Processing More Where Perception is Poor. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.05.18.541028. [PMID: 37292871 PMCID: PMC10245755 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.18.541028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The pre-saccadic preview of a peripheral target enhances the efficiency of its post-saccadic processing, termed the extrafoveal preview effect. Peripheral visual performance -and thus the quality of the preview- varies around the visual field, even at iso-eccentric locations: it is better along the horizontal than vertical meridian and along the lower than upper vertical meridian. To investigate whether these polar angle asymmetries influence the preview effect, we asked human participants (to preview four tilted gratings at the cardinals, until a central cue indicated to which one to saccade. During the saccade, the target orientation either remained or slightly changed (valid/invalid preview). After saccade landing, participants discriminated the orientation of the (briefly presented) second grating. Stimulus contrast was titrated with adaptive staircases to assess visual performance. Expectedly, valid previews increased participants' post-saccadic contrast sensitivity. This preview benefit, however, was inversely related to polar angle perceptual asymmetries; largest at the upper, and smallest at the horizontal meridian. This finding reveals that the visual system compensates for peripheral asymmetries when integrating information across saccades, by selectively assigning higher weights to the less-well perceived preview information. Our study supports the recent line of evidence showing that perceptual dynamics around saccades vary with eye movement direction.
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Hanning NM, Himmelberg MM, Carrasco M. Presaccadic Attention Depends on Eye Movement Direction and Is Related to V1 Cortical Magnification. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1023232023. [PMID: 38316562 PMCID: PMC10957215 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1023-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Revised: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
With every saccadic eye movement, humans bring new information into their fovea to be processed with high visual acuity. Notably, perception is enhanced already before a relevant item is foveated: During saccade preparation, presaccadic attention shifts to the upcoming fixation location, which can be measured via behavioral correlates such as enhanced visual performance or modulations of sensory feature tuning. The coupling between saccadic eye movements and attention is assumed to be robust and mandatory and considered a mechanism facilitating the integration of pre- and postsaccadic information. However, until recently it had not been investigated as a function of saccade direction. Here, we measured contrast response functions during fixation and saccade preparation in male and female observers and found that the pronounced response gain benefit typically elicited by presaccadic attention is selectively lacking before upward saccades at the group level-some observers even showed a cost. Individual observer's sensitivity before upward saccades was negatively related to their amount of surface area in primary visual cortex representing the saccade target, suggesting a potential compensatory mechanism that optimizes the use of the limited neural resources processing the upper vertical meridian. Our results raise the question of how perceptual continuity is achieved and how upward saccades can be accurately targeted despite the lack of-theoretically required-presaccadic attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina M Hanning
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 12489, Germany
| | - Marc M Himmelberg
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003
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3
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Lehet M, Rolfs M, Bao J, Fattal J, Thakkar KN. Pre-saccadic shifts of attention in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. Brain Behav 2024; 14:e3466. [PMID: 38450916 PMCID: PMC10918725 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.3466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Revised: 02/15/2024] [Accepted: 02/18/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Pathophysiological theories of schizophrenia (SZ) symptoms posit an abnormality in using predictions to guide behavior. One such prediction is based on imminent movements, via corollary discharge signals (CD) that relay information about planned movement kinematics to sensory brain regions. Empirical evidence suggests a reduced influence of sensorimotor predictions in individuals with SZ within multiple sensory systems, including in the visual system. One function of CD in the visual system is to selectively enhance visual sensitivity at the location of planned eye movements (pre-saccadic attention), thus enabling a prediction of the to-be-foveated stimulus. We expected pre-saccadic attention shifts to be less pronounced in individuals with SZ than in healthy controls (HC), resulting in unexpected sensory consequences of eye movements, which may relate to symptoms than can be explained in the context of altered allocation of attention. METHODS We examined this question by testing 30 SZ and 30 HC on a pre-saccadic attention task. On each trial participants made a saccade to a cued location in an array of four stimuli. A discrimination target that was either congruent or incongruent with the cued location was briefly presented after the cue, during saccade preparation. Pre-saccadic attention was quantified by comparing accuracy on congruent trials to incongruent trials within the interval preceding the saccade. RESULTS Although SZs were less accurate overall, the magnitude of the pre-saccadic attention effect generally did not differ across groups nor show a convincing relationship with symptom severity. We did, however, observe that SZ had reduced pre-saccadic attention effects when the discrimination target (probe) was presented at early stages of saccade planning, when pre-saccadic attention effects first emerged in HC. CONCLUSION These findings suggest generally intact pre-saccadic shifts of attention in SZ, albeit slightly delayed. Results contribute to our understanding of altered sensory predictions in people with schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Lehet
- Department of PsychologyMichigan State UniversityEast LansingMichiganUSA
| | - Martin Rolfs
- Department of PsychologyHumboldt UniversityBerlinGermany
| | - Jacqueline Bao
- Department of PsychologyMichigan State UniversityEast LansingMichiganUSA
| | - Jessica Fattal
- Department of PsychologyNorthwestern UniversityEvanstonIllinoisUSA
| | - Katharine N. Thakkar
- Department of PsychologyMichigan State UniversityEast LansingMichiganUSA
- Psychiatry and Behavioral MedicineMichigan State University College of Human MedicineEast LansingMichiganUSA
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Chandrasekaran AN, Vermani A, Gupta P, Steinmetz N, Moore T, Sridharan D. Dissociable components of attention exhibit distinct neuronal signatures in primate visual cortex. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadi0645. [PMID: 38306428 PMCID: PMC10836731 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2023] [Accepted: 01/04/2024] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
Attention can be deployed in multiple forms and facilitates behavior by influencing perceptual sensitivity and choice bias. Attention is also associated with a myriad of changes in sensory neural activity. Yet, the relationship between the behavioral components of attention and the accompanying changes in neural activity remains largely unresolved. We examined this relationship by quantifying sensitivity and bias in monkeys performing a task that dissociated eye movement responses from the focus of covert attention. Unexpectedly, bias, not sensitivity, increased at the focus of covert attention, whereas sensitivity increased at the location of planned eye movements. Furthermore, neuronal activity within visual area V4 varied robustly with bias, but not sensitivity, at the focus of covert attention. In contrast, correlated variability between neuronal pairs was lowest at the location of planned eye movements, and varied with sensitivity, but not bias. Thus, dissociable behavioral components of attention exhibit distinct neuronal signatures within the visual cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ayesha Vermani
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
| | - Priyanka Gupta
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
| | - Nicholas Steinmetz
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Tirin Moore
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Devarajan Sridharan
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
- Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, KA, India
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5
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Weng G, Clark K, Akbarian A, Noudoost B, Nategh N. Time-varying generalized linear models: characterizing and decoding neuronal dynamics in higher visual areas. Front Comput Neurosci 2024; 18:1273053. [PMID: 38348287 PMCID: PMC10859875 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2024.1273053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024] Open
Abstract
To create a behaviorally relevant representation of the visual world, neurons in higher visual areas exhibit dynamic response changes to account for the time-varying interactions between external (e.g., visual input) and internal (e.g., reward value) factors. The resulting high-dimensional representational space poses challenges for precisely quantifying individual factors' contributions to the representation and readout of sensory information during a behavior. The widely used point process generalized linear model (GLM) approach provides a powerful framework for a quantitative description of neuronal processing as a function of various sensory and non-sensory inputs (encoding) as well as linking particular response components to particular behaviors (decoding), at the level of single trials and individual neurons. However, most existing variations of GLMs assume the neural systems to be time-invariant, making them inadequate for modeling nonstationary characteristics of neuronal sensitivity in higher visual areas. In this review, we summarize some of the existing GLM variations, with a focus on time-varying extensions. We highlight their applications to understanding neural representations in higher visual areas and decoding transient neuronal sensitivity as well as linking physiology to behavior through manipulation of model components. This time-varying class of statistical models provide valuable insights into the neural basis of various visual behaviors in higher visual areas and hold significant potential for uncovering the fundamental computational principles that govern neuronal processing underlying various behaviors in different regions of the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geyu Weng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Kelsey Clark
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Amir Akbarian
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Behrad Noudoost
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | - Neda Nategh
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
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6
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Coop SH, Yates JL, Mitchell JF. Pre-saccadic Neural Enhancements in Marmoset Area MT. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e2034222023. [PMID: 38050176 PMCID: PMC10860570 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2034-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Each time we make an eye movement, attention moves before the eyes, resulting in a perceptual enhancement at the target. Recent psychophysical studies suggest that this pre-saccadic attention enhances the visual features at the saccade target, whereas covert attention causes only spatially selective enhancements. While previous nonhuman primate studies have found that pre-saccadic attention does enhance neural responses spatially, no studies have tested whether changes in neural tuning reflect an automatic feature enhancement. Here we examined pre-saccadic attention using a saccade foraging task developed for marmoset monkeys (one male and one female). We recorded from neurons in the middle temporal area with peripheral receptive fields that contained a motion stimulus, which would either be the target of a saccade or a distracter as a saccade was made to another location. We established that marmosets, like macaques, show enhanced pre-saccadic neural responses for saccades toward the receptive field, including increases in firing rate and motion information. We then examined if the specific changes in neural tuning might support feature enhancements for the target. Neurons exhibited diverse changes in tuning but predominantly showed additive and multiplicative increases that were uniformly applied across motion directions. These findings confirm that marmoset monkeys, like macaques, exhibit pre-saccadic neural enhancements during saccade foraging tasks with minimal training requirements. However, at the level of individual neurons, the lack of feature-tuned enhancements is similar to neural effects reported during covert spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shanna H Coop
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester 14627-0268, New York
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester 14627-0268, New York
| | - Jacob L Yates
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester 14627-0268, New York
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester 14627-0268, New York
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland, 20742-5025
| | - Jude F Mitchell
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester 14627-0268, New York
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester 14627-0268, New York
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Prahalad KS, Coates DR. Alterations to foveal crowding with microsaccade preparation. Vision Res 2024; 214:108338. [PMID: 37988923 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2023.108338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2023] [Revised: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023]
Abstract
Visual stimuli presented around the time of a saccade have been shown to be perceived differently by the visual system, including a reduction in the harmful impact of flankers (crowding). However, whether the effects observed are due strictly to crowding remains controversial, and the effects have only been measured with large saccades in peripheral vision. Here we investigate how crowded stimuli placed 20 arc minutes from the center of gaze are affected by an upcoming microsaccade. The stimulus consisted of a rotated T of size 6.25 arcminutes that was either unflanked, surrounded by four flankers (Experiment 1), or surrounded by two flankers that were positioned either radially or tangentially (Experiments 2 and 3). In 80 % of trials, subjects made voluntary microsaccades to the target when cued, and in the remaining 20 % of the trials subjects continued to maintain fixation. In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects were required to saccade to the same location as the target, while in Experiment 3 subjects saccaded to a different location ∼ 20 arc min to the upper left of the target. Thus, we provide evidence for two separable pre-saccadic benefits for crowded parafoveal targets: one isotropizes the crowding zone for stimuli presented 200 to 125 ms before microsaccadic onset, and another provides a benefit exclusively for microsaccade targets surrounded by tangential flankers in the presence of imminent microsaccades. Two possible mechanisms are attentional enhancement and predictive remapping of receptive fields, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krishnamachari S Prahalad
- College of Optometry, University of Houston, USA; Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, USA.
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8
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Gupta P, Sridharan D. Presaccadic attention does not facilitate the detection of changes in the visual field. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002485. [PMID: 38271460 PMCID: PMC10810526 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Planning a rapid eye movement (saccade) changes how we perceive our visual world. Even before we move the eyes visual discrimination sensitivity improves at the impending target of eye movements, a phenomenon termed "presaccadic attention." Yet, it is unknown if such presaccadic selection merely affects perceptual sensitivity, or also affects downstream decisional processes, such as choice bias. We report a surprising lack of presaccadic perceptual benefits in a common, everyday setting-detection of changes in the visual field. Despite the lack of sensitivity benefits, choice bias for reporting changes increased reliably for the saccade target. With independent follow-up experiments, we show that presaccadic change detection is rendered more challenging because percepts at the saccade target location are biased toward, and more precise for, only the most recent of two successive stimuli. With a Bayesian model, we show how such perceptual and choice biases are crucial to explain the effects of saccade plans on change detection performance. In sum, visual change detection sensitivity does not improve presaccadically, a result that is readily explained by teasing apart distinct components of presaccadic selection. The findings may have critical implications for real-world scenarios, like driving, that require rapid gaze shifts in dynamically changing environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Priyanka Gupta
- Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
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9
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O'Rawe JF, Zhou Z, Li AJ, LaFosse PK, Goldbach HC, Histed MH. Excitation creates a distributed pattern of cortical suppression due to varied recurrent input. Neuron 2023; 111:4086-4101.e5. [PMID: 37865083 PMCID: PMC10872553 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.09.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Revised: 05/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/08/2023] [Indexed: 10/23/2023]
Abstract
Dense local, recurrent connections are a major feature of cortical circuits, yet how they affect neurons' responses has been unclear, with some studies reporting weak recurrent effects, some reporting amplification, and others indicating local suppression. Here, we show that optogenetic input to mouse V1 excitatory neurons generates salt-and-pepper patterns of both excitation and suppression. Responses in individual neurons are not strongly predicted by that neuron's direct input. A balanced-state network model reconciles a set of diverse observations: the observed dynamics, suppressed responses, decoupling of input and output, and long tail of excited responses. The model shows recurrent excitatory-excitatory connections are strong and also variable across neurons. Together, these results demonstrate that excitatory recurrent connections can have major effects on cortical computations by shaping and changing neurons' responses to input.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan F O'Rawe
- National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Program, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Zhishang Zhou
- National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Program, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Anna J Li
- National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Program, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Paul K LaFosse
- National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Program, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA; NIH-University of Maryland Graduate Partnerships Program, Bethesda, MD, USA; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Hannah C Goldbach
- National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Program, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Mark H Histed
- National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Program, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
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10
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Baumann MP, Bogadhi AR, Denninger AF, Hafed ZM. Sensory tuning in neuronal movement commands. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2305759120. [PMID: 37695898 PMCID: PMC10515157 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2305759120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Movement control is critical for successful interaction with our environment. However, movement does not occur in complete isolation of sensation, and this is particularly true of eye movements. Here, we show that the neuronal eye movement commands emitted by the superior colliculus (SC), a structure classically associated with oculomotor control, encompass a robust visual sensory representation of eye movement targets. Thus, similar saccades toward different images are associated with different saccade-related "motor" bursts. Such sensory tuning in SC saccade motor commands appeared for all image manipulations that we tested, from simple visual features to real-life object images, and it was also strongest in the most motor neurons in the deeper collicular layers. Visual-feature discrimination performance in the motor commands was also stronger than in visual responses. Comparing SC motor command feature discrimination performance to that in the primary visual cortex during steady-state gaze fixation revealed that collicular motor bursts possess a reliable perisaccadic sensory representation of the peripheral saccade target's visual appearance, exactly when retinal input is expected to be most uncertain. Our results demonstrate that SC neuronal movement commands likely serve a fundamentally sensory function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthias P Baumann
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Amarender R Bogadhi
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Central Nervous Systems Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach 88400, Germany
| | - Anna F Denninger
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen 72076, Germany
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11
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Hanning NM, Fernández A, Carrasco M. Dissociable roles of human frontal eye fields and early visual cortex in presaccadic attention. Nat Commun 2023; 14:5381. [PMID: 37666805 PMCID: PMC10477327 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40678-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Shortly before saccadic eye movements, visual sensitivity at the saccade target is enhanced, at the expense of sensitivity elsewhere. Some behavioral and neural correlates of this presaccadic shift of attention resemble those of covert attention, deployed during fixation. Microstimulation in non-human primates has shown that presaccadic attention modulates perception via feedback from oculomotor to visual areas. This mechanism also seems plausible in humans, as both oculomotor and visual areas are active during saccade planning. We investigated this hypothesis by applying TMS to frontal or visual areas during saccade preparation. By simultaneously measuring perceptual performance, we show their causal and differential roles in contralateral presaccadic attention effects: Whereas rFEF+ stimulation enhanced sensitivity opposite the saccade target throughout saccade preparation, V1/V2 stimulation reduced sensitivity at the saccade target only shortly before saccade onset. These findings are consistent with presaccadic attention modulating perception through cortico-cortical feedback and further dissociate presaccadic and covert attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina M Hanning
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
- Institut für Psychologie, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Antonio Fernández
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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12
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Hanning NM, Deubel H. A dynamic 1/f noise protocol to assess visual attention without biasing perceptual processing. Behav Res Methods 2023; 55:2583-2594. [PMID: 35915360 PMCID: PMC10439027 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-022-01916-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Psychophysical paradigms measure visual attention via localized test items to which observers must react or whose features have to be discriminated. These items, however, potentially interfere with the intended measurement, as they bias observers' spatial and temporal attention to their location and presentation time. Furthermore, visual sensitivity for conventional test items naturally decreases with retinal eccentricity, which prevents direct comparison of central and peripheral attention assessments. We developed a stimulus that overcomes these limitations. A brief oriented discrimination signal is seamlessly embedded into a continuously changing 1/f noise field, such that observers cannot anticipate potential test locations or times. Using our new protocol, we demonstrate that local orientation discrimination accuracy for 1/f filtered signals is largely independent of retinal eccentricity. Moreover, we show that items present in the visual field indeed shape the distribution of visual attention, suggesting that classical studies investigating the spatiotemporal dynamics of visual attention via localized test items may have obtained a biased measure. We recommend our protocol as an efficient method to evaluate the behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of attentional orienting across space and time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina M Hanning
- Allgemeine und Experimentelle Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
- Institut für Psychologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Heiner Deubel
- Allgemeine und Experimentelle Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
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13
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Tas AC, Parker JL. The role of color in transsaccadic object correspondence. J Vis 2023; 23:5. [PMID: 37535373 PMCID: PMC10408768 DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.8.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023] Open
Abstract
With each saccade, visual information is disrupted, and the visual system is tasked with establishing object correspondence between the presaccadic and postsaccadic representations of the saccade target. There is substantial evidence that the visual system consults spatiotemporal continuity when determining object correspondence across saccades. The evidence for surface feature continuity, however, is mixed. Surface features that are integral to the saccade target object's identity (e.g., shape and contrast polarity) are informative of object continuity, but features that may only imply the state of the object (e.g., orientation) are ignored. The present study tested whether color information is consulted to determine transsaccadic object continuity. We used two variations of the intrasaccadic target displacement task. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants reported the direction of the target displacement. In Experiments 3 and 4, they instead reported whether they detected any target movement. In all experiments, we manipulated the saccade target's continuity by removing it briefly (i.e., blanking) and by changing its color. We found that large color changes can disrupt stability and increase sensitivity to displacements for both direction and movement reports, although not as strongly as long blank durations (250 ms). Interestingly, even smaller color changes, but not blanking, reduced response biases. These results indicate that disrupting surface feature continuity may impact the process of transsaccadic object correspondence more strongly than spatiotemporal disruptions by both increasing the sensitivity and decreasing the response bias.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Caglar Tas
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Jessica L Parker
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
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14
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Fabius JH, Fracasso A, Deodato M, Melcher D, Van der Stigchel S. Bilateral increase in MEG planar gradients prior to saccade onset. Sci Rep 2023; 13:5830. [PMID: 37037892 PMCID: PMC10086038 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-32980-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Every time we move our eyes, the retinal locations of objects change. To distinguish the changes caused by eye movements from actual external motion of the objects, the visual system is thought to anticipate the consequences of eye movements (saccades). Single neuron recordings have indeed demonstrated changes in receptive fields before saccade onset. Although some EEG studies with human participants have also demonstrated a pre-saccadic increased potential over the hemisphere that will process a stimulus after a saccade, results have been mixed. Here, we used magnetoencephalography to investigate the timing and lateralization of visually evoked planar gradients before saccade onset. We modelled the gradients from trials with both a saccade and a stimulus as the linear combination of the gradients from two conditions with either only a saccade or only a stimulus. We reasoned that any residual gradients in the condition with both a saccade and a stimulus must be uniquely linked to visually-evoked neural activity before a saccade. We observed a widespread increase in residual planar gradients. Interestingly, this increase was bilateral, showing activity both contralateral and ipsilateral to the stimulus, i.e. over the hemisphere that would process the stimulus after saccade offset. This pattern of results is consistent with predictive pre-saccadic changes involving both the current and the future receptive fields involved in processing an attended object, well before the start of the eye movement. The active, sensorimotor coupling of vision and the oculomotor system may underlie the seamless subjective experience of stable and continuous perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasper H Fabius
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Alessio Fracasso
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK
| | - Michele Deodato
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - David Melcher
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
| | - Stefan Van der Stigchel
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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15
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Hanning NM, Fernández A, Carrasco M. Dissociable roles of human frontal eye fields and early visual cortex in presaccadic attention - evidence from TMS. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.02.23.529691. [PMID: 36865228 PMCID: PMC9980111 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.23.529691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/03/2023]
Abstract
Shortly before each saccadic eye movement, presaccadic attention improves visual sensitivity at the saccade target 1-5 at the expense of lowered sensitivity at non-target locations 6-11 . Some behavioral and neural correlates of presaccadic attention and covert attention -which likewise enhances sensitivity, but during fixation 12 -are similar 13 . This resemblance has led to the debatable 13-18 notion that presaccadic and covert attention are functionally equivalent and rely on the same neural circuitry 19-21 . At a broad scale, oculomotor brain structures (e.g., FEF) are also modulated during covert attention 22-24 - yet by distinct neuronal subpopulations 25-28 . Perceptual benefits of presaccadic attention rely on feedback from oculomotor structures to visual cortices 29,30 ( Fig. 1a ); micro-stimulation of FEF in non-human primates affects activity in visual cortex 31-34 and enhances visual sensitivity at the movement field of the stimulated neurons 35-37 . Similar feedback projections seem to exist in humans: FEF+ activation precedes occipital activation during saccade preparation 38,39 and FEF TMS modulates activity in visual cortex 40-42 and enhances perceived contrast in the contralateral hemifield 40 . We investigated presaccadic feedback in humans by applying TMS to frontal or visual areas during saccade preparation. By simultaneously measuring perceptual performance, we show the causal and differential roles of these brain regions in contralateral presaccadic benefits at the saccade target and costs at non-targets: Whereas rFEF+ stimulation reduced presaccadic costs throughout saccade preparation, V1/V2 stimulation reduced benefits only shortly before saccade onset. These effects provide causal evidence that presaccadic attention modulates perception through cortico-cortical feedback and further dissociate presaccadic and covert attention.
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16
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Abstract
Visual perception is limited by spatial resolution, the ability to discriminate fine details. Spatial resolution not only declines with eccentricity but also differs for polar angle locations around the visual field, also known as 'performance fields'. To compensate for poor peripheral resolution, we make rapid eye movements-saccades-to bring peripheral objects into high-acuity foveal vision. Already before saccade onset, visual attention shifts to the saccade target location and prioritizes visual processing. This presaccadic shift of attention improves performance in many visual tasks, but whether it changes resolution is unknown. Here, we investigated whether presaccadic attention sharpens peripheral spatial resolution; and if so, whether such effect interacts with performance fields asymmetries. We measured acuity thresholds in an orientation discrimination task during fixation and saccade preparation around the visual field. The results revealed that presaccadic attention sharpens acuity, which can facilitate a smooth transition from peripheral to foveal representation. This acuity enhancement is similar across the four cardinal locations; thus, the typically robust effect of presaccadic attention does not change polar angle differences in resolution.
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17
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Ouerfelli-Ethier J, Comtois Bona I, Fournet R, Pisella L, Khan AZ. Pre-saccadic attention relies more on suppression than does covert attention. J Vis 2023; 23:1. [PMID: 36595283 PMCID: PMC9819743 DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.1.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
During covert and pre-saccadic attentional shifts, it is unclear how facilitation and suppression processes interact for target selection. A recent countermanding task pointed to greater suppression at unattended locations during trials with saccades compared to trials without saccades (i.e., fixation and successful stop trials), whereas target facilitation did not differ. It is unknown whether this finding is restricted to countermanding paradigms that involve inhibitory processes. To test this, we adapted Gaspelin and colleagues (2015)'s attention capture task where, within the same block, one location was primed with frequent line discrimination trials, and all locations were occasionally probed using letters report trials. Participants also performed a baseline condition without priming. We tested 15 participants and examined how performance at non-primed locations was affected by covert versus pre-saccadic attention in blocks of four or six items, as well as by position from the primed location and timing from saccade onset. For both attention conditions, letter report at non-primed locations was worse compared to baseline, demonstrating suppression, and letter report at primed location was better, demonstrating facilitation. In saccades trials, letter report was better at primed locations and worse at non-primed locations compared to fixation trials. The timing of this additional pre-saccadic suppression differed from saccadic suppression. In both attention conditions, suppression was greater when primed and non-primed locations were within the same hemifield or in diagonal opposite quadrants. These results confirmed that attention preceding saccade execution suppressed non-primed locations to a larger extent than covert attention, with the same spatial quadrant effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie Ouerfelli-Ethier
- School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.,Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Trajectoires team, University of Lyon I Claude-Bernard, Bron, France.,
| | | | - Romain Fournet
- School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.,
| | - Laure Pisella
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Trajectoires team, University of Lyon I Claude-Bernard, Bron, France.,
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18
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Trentin C, Slagter HA, Olivers CNL. Visual working memory representations bias attention more when they are the target of an action plan. Cognition 2023; 230:105274. [PMID: 36113256 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Attention has frequently been regarded as an emergent property of linking sensory representations to action plans. It has recently been proposed that similar mechanisms may operate within visual working memory (VWM), such that linking an object in VWM to an action plan strengthens its sensory memory representation, which then expresses as an attentional bias. Here we directly tested this hypothesis by comparing attentional biases induced by VWM representations which were the target of a future action, to those induced by VWM representations that were equally task-relevant, but not the direct target of action. We predicted that the first condition would result in a more prioritized memory state and hence stronger attentional biases. Specifically, participants memorized a geometric shape for a subsequent memory test. At test, in case of a match, participants either had to perform a grip movement on the matching object (action condition), or perform the same movement, but on an unrelated object (control condition). To assess any attentional biases, during the delay period between memorandum and test, participants performed a visual selection task in which either the target was surrounded by the memorized shape (congruent trials) or a distractor (incongruent trials). Eye movements were measured as a proxy for attentional priority. We found a significant interaction for saccade latencies between action condition and shape congruency, reflecting more pronounced VWM-based attentional biases in the action condition. Our results are consistent with the idea that action plans prioritize sensory representations in VWM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caterina Trentin
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
| | - Heleen A Slagter
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Christian N L Olivers
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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19
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Malik RN, Marigold DS, Chow M, Lam T. Probing the deployment of peripheral visual attention during obstacle-crossing planning. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:1039201. [PMID: 36618994 PMCID: PMC9813236 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.1039201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Gaze is directed to one location at a time, making peripheral visual input important for planning how to negotiate different terrain during walking. Whether and how the brain attends to this input is unclear. We developed a novel paradigm to probe the deployment of sustained covert visual attention by testing orientation discrimination of a Gabor patch at stepping and non-stepping locations during obstacle-crossing planning. Compared to remaining stationary, obstacle-crossing planning decreased visual performance (percent correct) and sensitivity (d') at only the first of two stepping locations. Given the timing of the first and second steps before obstacle crossing relative to the Gabor patch presentation, the results suggest the brain uses peripheral vision to plan one step at a time during obstacle crossing, in contrast to how it uses central vision to plan two or more steps in advance. We propose that this protocol, along with multiple possible variations, presents a novel behavioral approach to identify the role of covert visual attention during obstacle-crossing planning and other goal-directed walking tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raza N. Malik
- School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Burnaby, BC, Canada,International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada,*Correspondence: Raza N. Malik
| | - Daniel S. Marigold
- Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada,Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
| | - Mason Chow
- International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Tania Lam
- School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Burnaby, BC, Canada,International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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20
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Allocation of Visuospatial Attention Indexes Evidence Accumulation for Reach Decisions. eNeuro 2022; 9:ENEURO.0313-22.2022. [PMID: 36302633 PMCID: PMC9651207 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0313-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 09/19/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Visuospatial attention is a prerequisite for the performance of visually guided movements: perceptual discrimination is regularly enhanced at target locations before movement initiation. It is known that this attentional prioritization evolves over the time of movement preparation; however, it is not clear whether this build-up simply reflects a time requirement of attention formation or whether, instead, attention build-up reflects the emergence of the movement decision. To address this question, we combined behavioral experiments, psychophysics, and computational decision-making models to characterize the time course of attention build-up during motor preparation. Participants (n = 46, 29 female) executed center-out reaches to one of two potential target locations and reported the identity of a visual discrimination target (DT) that occurred concurrently at one of various time-points during movement preparation and execution. Visual discrimination increased simultaneously at the two potential target locations but was modulated by the experiment-wide probability that a given location would become the final goal. Attention increased further for the location that was then designated as the final goal location, with a time course closely related to movement initiation. A sequential sampling model of decision-making faithfully predicted key temporal characteristics of attentional allocation. Together, these findings provide evidence that visuospatial attentional prioritization during motor preparation does not simply reflect that a spatial location has been selected as movement goal, but rather indexes the time-extended, cumulative decision that leads to the selection, hence constituting a link between perceptual and motor aspects of sensorimotor decisions.
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21
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Kwon S, Fahrenthold BK, Cavanaugh MR, Huxlin KR, Mitchell JF. Perceptual restoration fails to recover unconscious processing for smooth eye movements after occipital stroke. eLife 2022; 11:67573. [PMID: 35730931 PMCID: PMC9255960 DOI: 10.7554/elife.67573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The visual pathways that guide actions do not necessarily mediate conscious perception. Patients with primary visual cortex (V1) damage lose conscious perception but often retain unconscious abilities (e.g. blindsight). Here, we asked if saccade accuracy and post-saccadic following responses (PFRs) that automatically track target motion upon saccade landing are retained when conscious perception is lost. We contrasted these behaviors in the blind and intact fields of 11 chronic V1-stroke patients, and in 8 visually intact controls. Saccade accuracy was relatively normal in all cases. Stroke patients also had normal PFR in their intact fields, but no PFR in their blind fields. Thus, V1 damage did not spare the unconscious visual processing necessary for automatic, post-saccadic smooth eye movements. Importantly, visual training that recovered motion perception in the blind field did not restore the PFR, suggesting a clear dissociation between pathways mediating perceptual restoration and automatic actions in the V1-damaged visual system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunwoo Kwon
- Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
| | | | - Matthew R Cavanaugh
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, United States
| | - Krystel R Huxlin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, United States
| | - Jude F Mitchell
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, United States
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22
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Hanning NM, Himmelberg MM, Carrasco M. Presaccadic attention enhances contrast sensitivity, but not at the upper vertical meridian. iScience 2022; 25:103851. [PMID: 35198902 PMCID: PMC8850791 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2021] [Revised: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual performance has striking polar performance asymmetries: At a fixed eccentricity, it is better along the horizontal than vertical meridian and the lower than upper vertical meridian. These asymmetries are not alleviated by covert exogenous or endogenous attention, but have been studied exclusively during eye fixation. However, a major driver of everyday attentional orienting is saccade preparation, during which attention automatically shifts to the future eye fixation. This presaccadic attention shift is considered strong and compulsory, and relies on different neural computations and substrates than covert attention. Thus, we asked: Can presaccadic attention compensate for the ubiquitous performance asymmetries observed during eye fixation? Our data replicate polar performance asymmetries during fixation and document the same asymmetries during saccade preparation. Crucially, however, presaccadic attention enhanced contrast sensitivity at the horizontal and lower vertical meridian, but not at the upper vertical meridian. Thus, instead of attenuating performance asymmetries, presaccadic attention exacerbates them. Can presaccadic attention attenuate polar angle asymmetries in visual perception Presaccadic attention enhances sensitivity at horizontal and lower vertical meridians But presaccadic attention does not enhance sensitivity at the upper vertical meridian Thus, presaccadic attention even exacerbates polar angle asymmetries in perception
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina M Hanning
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.,Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Marc M Himmelberg
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.,Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.,Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
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23
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Hautala J, Hawelka S, Loberg O, Leppänen PH. A dynamic adjustment model of saccade lengths in reading for word-spaced orthographies: evidence from simulations and invisible boundary experiments. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2021.2011895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jarkko Hautala
- Niilo Mäki Institute, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Stefan Hawelka
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience & Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Otto Loberg
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
| | - Paavo H.T. Leppänen
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
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24
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Movement control, decision-making, and the building of Roman roads to link them. Behav Brain Sci 2021; 44:e138. [PMID: 34588089 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x2100090x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
In science, as in life, one can only hope to both inform others, and be informed by them. The commentaries associated with our book Vigor have highlighted the many ways in which the theory that we proposed can be improved. For example, there are a myriad of factors that need to be considered in a fully encompassing objective function. The neural mechanisms underlying the links between movement and decision-making have yet to be unraveled. The implications of a two-way interaction between movement and decisions at both the individual and social levels remain to be understood. The commentaries outline future questions, and encouragingly highlight the diversity of science communities that may be linked via the concept of vigor.
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25
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Abstract
In active agents, sensory and motor processes form an inevitable bond. This wedding is particularly striking for saccadic eye movements - the prime target of Shadmehr and Ahmed's thesis - which impose frequent changes on the retinal image. Changes in movement vigor (latency and speed), therefore, will need to be accompanied by changes in visual and attentional processes. We argue that the mechanisms that control movement vigor may also enable vision to attune to changes in movement kinematics.
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26
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Fast and nonuniform dynamics of perisaccadic vision in the central fovea. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2101259118. [PMID: 34497123 PMCID: PMC8449317 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101259118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/09/2021] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans shift their gaze more frequently than their heart beats. These rapid eye movements (saccades) enable high visual acuity by redirecting the tiny high-resolution region of the retina (the foveola). But in doing so, they abruptly sweep the image across receptors, raising questions on how the visual system achieves stable percepts. It is well established that visual sensitivity is transiently attenuated during saccades. However, little is known about the time course of foveal vision despite its disproportionate importance, as technical challenges have so far prevented study of how saccades affect the foveola. Here we show that saccades modulate this region in a nonuniform manner, providing stronger and faster changes at its very center, a locus with higher sensitivity. Humans use rapid eye movements (saccades) to inspect stimuli with the foveola, the region of the retina where receptors are most densely packed. It is well established that visual sensitivity is generally attenuated during these movements, a phenomenon known as saccadic suppression. This effect is commonly studied with large, often peripheral, stimuli presented during instructed saccades. However, little is known about how saccades modulate the foveola and how the resulting dynamics unfold during natural visual exploration. Here we measured the foveal dynamics of saccadic suppression in a naturalistic high-acuity task, a task designed after primates’ social grooming, which—like most explorations of fine patterns—primarily elicits minute saccades (microsaccades). Leveraging on recent advances in gaze-contingent display control, we were able to systematically map the perisaccadic time course of sensitivity across the foveola. We show that contrast sensitivity is not uniform across this region and that both the extent and dynamics of saccadic suppression vary within the foveola. Suppression is stronger and faster in the most central portion, where sensitivity is generally higher and selectively rebounds at the onset of a new fixation. These results shed light on the modulations experienced by foveal vision during the saccade-fixation cycle and explain some of the benefits of microsaccades.
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27
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Laurin AS, Bleau M, Gedjakouchian J, Fournet R, Pisella L, Khan AZ. Post-saccadic changes disrupt attended pre-saccadic object memory. J Vis 2021; 21:8. [PMID: 34347017 PMCID: PMC8340665 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.8.8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Trans-saccadic memory consists of keeping track of objects’ locations and features across saccades; pre-saccadic information is remembered and compared with post-saccadic information. It has been shown to have limited resources and involve attention with respect to the selection of objects and features. In support, a previous study showed that recognition of distinct post-saccadic objects in the visual scene is impaired when pre-saccadic objects are relevant and thus already encoded in memory (Poth, Herwig, Schneider, 2015). Here, we investigated the inverse (i.e. how the memory of pre-saccadic objects is affected by abrupt but irrelevant changes in the post-saccadic visual scene). We also modulated the amount of attention to the relevant pre-saccadic object by having participants either make a saccade to it or elsewhere and observed that pre-saccadic attentional facilitation affected how much post-saccadic changes disrupted trans-saccadic memory of pre-saccadic objects. Participants identified a flashed symbol (d, b, p, or q, among distracters), at one of six placeholders (figures “8”) arranged in circle around fixation while planning a saccade to one of them. They reported the identity of the symbol after the saccade. We changed the post-saccadic scene in Experiment one by removing the entire scene, only the placeholder where the pre-saccadic symbol was presented, or all other placeholders except this one. We observed reduced identification performance when only the saccade-target placeholder disappeared after the saccade. In Experiment two, we changed one placeholder location (inward/outward shift or rotation re. saccade vector) after the saccade and observed that identification performance decreased with increased shift/rotation of the saccade-target placeholder. We conclude that pre-saccadic memory is disrupted by abrupt attention-capturing post-saccadic changes of visual scene, particularly when these changes involve the object prioritized by being the goal of a saccade. These findings support the notion that limited trans-saccadic memory resources are disrupted when object correspondence at saccadic goal is broken through removal or location change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne-Sophie Laurin
- University of Montreal, Department of Psychology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,
| | - Maxime Bleau
- University of Montreal, School of Optometry, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,
| | | | - Romain Fournet
- University of Montreal, School of Optometry, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,
| | - Laure Pisella
- ImpAct, INSERM UM1028, CNRS UMR 5292, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France.,
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28
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Li HH, Hanning NM, Carrasco M. To look or not to look: dissociating presaccadic and covert spatial attention. Trends Neurosci 2021; 44:669-686. [PMID: 34099240 PMCID: PMC8552810 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2021.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Revised: 04/25/2021] [Accepted: 05/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Attention is a central neural process that enables selective and efficient processing of visual information. Individuals can attend to specific visual information either overtly, by making an eye movement to an object of interest, or covertly, without moving their eyes. We review behavioral, neuropsychological, neurophysiological, and computational evidence of presaccadic attentional modulations that occur while preparing saccadic eye movements, and highlight their differences from those of covert spatial endogenous (voluntary) and exogenous (involuntary) attention. We discuss recent studies and experimental procedures on how these different types of attention impact visual performance, alter appearance, differentially modulate the featural representation of basic visual dimensions (orientation and spatial frequency), engage different neural computations, and recruit partially distinct neural substrates. We conclude that presaccadic attention and covert attention are dissociable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsin-Hung Li
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Nina M Hanning
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
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29
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Time-dependent inhibition of covert shifts of attention. Exp Brain Res 2021; 239:2635-2648. [PMID: 34216231 PMCID: PMC8354873 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06164-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2020] [Accepted: 06/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Visual transients can interrupt overt orienting by abolishing the execution of a planned eye movement due about 90 ms later, a phenomenon known as saccadic inhibition (SI). It is not known if the same inhibitory process might influence covert orienting in the absence of saccades, and consequently alter visual perception. In Experiment 1 (n = 14), we measured orientation discrimination during a covert orienting task in which an uninformative exogenous visual cue preceded the onset of an oriented probe by 140-290 ms. In half of the trials, the onset of the probe was accompanied by a brief irrelevant flash, a visual transient that would normally induce SI. We report a time-dependent inhibition of covert orienting in which the irrelevant flash impaired orientation discrimination accuracy when the probe followed the cue by 190 and 240 ms. The interference was more pronounced when the cue was incongruent with the probe location, suggesting an impact on the reorienting component of the attentional shift. In Experiment 2 (n = 12), we tested whether the inhibitory effect of the flash could occur within an earlier time range, or only within the later, reorienting range. We presented probes at congruent cue locations in a time window between 50 and 200 ms. Similar to Experiment 1, discrimination performance was altered at 200 ms after the cue. We suggest that covert attention may be susceptible to similar inhibitory mechanisms that generate SI, especially in later stages of attentional shifting (> 200 ms after a cue), typically associated with reorienting.
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30
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Abstract
The scientific study of reading has a rich history that spans disciplines from vision science to linguistics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neurology, and education. The study of reading can elucidate important general mechanisms in spatial vision, attentional control, object recognition, and perceptual learning, as well as the principles of plasticity and cortical topography. However, literacy also prompts the development of specific neural circuits to process a unique and artificial stimulus. In this review, we describe the sequence of operations that transforms visual features into language, how the key neural circuits are sculpted by experience during development, and what goes awry in children for whom learning to read is a struggle. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason D Yeatman
- Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, California 93405, USA; .,Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.,Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Alex L White
- Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, California 93405, USA; .,Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.,Department of Neuroscience and Behavior, Barnard College, New York, New York 10027, USA
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31
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Abstract
Visual processing varies dramatically across the visual field. These differences start in the retina and continue all the way to the visual cortex. Despite these differences in processing, the perceptual experience of humans is remarkably stable and continuous across the visual field. Research in the last decade has shown that processing in peripheral and foveal vision is not independent, but is more directly connected than previously thought. We address three core questions on how peripheral and foveal vision interact, and review recent findings on potentially related phenomena that could provide answers to these questions. First, how is the processing of peripheral and foveal signals related during fixation? Peripheral signals seem to be processed in foveal retinotopic areas to facilitate peripheral object recognition, and foveal information seems to be extrapolated toward the periphery to generate a homogeneous representation of the environment. Second, how are peripheral and foveal signals re-calibrated? Transsaccadic changes in object features lead to a reduction in the discrepancy between peripheral and foveal appearance. Third, how is peripheral and foveal information stitched together across saccades? Peripheral and foveal signals are integrated across saccadic eye movements to average percepts and to reduce uncertainty. Together, these findings illustrate that peripheral and foveal processing are closely connected, mastering the compromise between a large peripheral visual field and high resolution at the fovea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma E M Stewart
- Allgemeine und Biologische Psychologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.,
| | - Matteo Valsecchi
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universitá di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,
| | - Alexander C Schütz
- Allgemeine und Biologische Psychologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.,Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany., https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb04/team-schuetz/team/alexander-schutz
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32
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Li HH, Pan J, Carrasco M. Different computations underlie overt presaccadic and covert spatial attention. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:1418-1431. [PMID: 33875838 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01099-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Perception and action are tightly coupled: visual responses at the saccade target are enhanced right before saccade onset. This phenomenon, presaccadic attention, is a form of overt attention-deployment of visual attention with concurrent eye movements. Presaccadic attention is well-documented, but its underlying computational process remains unknown. This is in stark contrast to covert attention-deployment of visual attention without concurrent eye movements-for which the computational processes are well characterized by a normalization model. Here, a series of psychophysical experiments reveal that presaccadic attention modulates visual performance only via response gain changes. A response gain change was observed even when attention field size increased, violating the predictions of a normalization model of attention. Our empirical results and model comparisons reveal that the perceptual modulations by overt presaccadic and covert spatial attention are mediated through different computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsin-Hung Li
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA. .,Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Jasmine Pan
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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33
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Shurygina O, Pooresmaeili A, Rolfs M. Pre-saccadic attention spreads to stimuli forming a perceptual group with the saccade target. Cortex 2021; 140:179-198. [PMID: 33991779 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.03.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2020] [Revised: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
The pre-saccadic attention shift-a rapid increase in visual sensitivity at the target-is an inevitable precursor of saccadic eye movements. Saccade targets are often parts of the objects that are of interest to the active observer. Although the link between saccades and covert attention shifts is well established, it remains unclear if pre-saccadic attention selects the location of the eye movement target or rather the entire object that occupies this location. Indeed, several neurophysiological studies suggest that attentional modulations of neural activity in visual cortex spreads across parts of objects (e.g., elements grouped by Gestalt principles) that contain the target location of a saccade. To understand the nature of pre-saccadic attentional selection, we examined how visual sensitivity, measured in a challenging orientation discrimination task, changes during saccade preparation at locations that are perceptually grouped with the saccade target. In Experiment 1, using grouping by color in a delayed-saccade task, we found no consistent spread of attention to locations that formed a perceptual group with the saccade target. However, performance depended on the side of the stimulus arrangement relative to the saccade target location, an effect we discuss with respect to attentional momentum. In Experiment 2, employing stronger perceptual grouping cues (color and motion) and an immediate-saccade task, we obtained a reliable grouping effect: Attention spread to locations that were perceptually grouped with the saccade target while saccade preparation was underway. We also replicated the side effect observed in Experiment 1. These results provide evidence that the pre-saccadic attention spreads beyond the target location along the saccade direction, and selects scene elements that-based on Gestalt criteria-are likely to belong to the same object as the saccade target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga Shurygina
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Exzellenzcluster Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Arezoo Pooresmaeili
- Perception and Cognition Group, European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen - A Joint Initiative of the University Medical Center Göttingen and the Max-Planck-Society, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Martin Rolfs
- Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Exzellenzcluster Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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34
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Dong X, Bao M. The growing sensory suppression on visual perception during head-rotation preparation. Psych J 2021; 10:499-507. [PMID: 33665982 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2020] [Revised: 01/15/2021] [Accepted: 01/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Sensory perception is often impaired by self-generated movements. This effect of sensory suppression has been commonly observed in voluntary hand-movement-induced tactile sensation during the period of motor preparation and execution. However, it remains unclear whether such suppression also occurs in the visual domain and if it can be induced by the preparation of other body movements. To extend our knowledge about sensory suppression, the present study investigated visual sensitivity during the preparation of head rotation. Participants wore virtual reality goggles and rotated their heads horizontally according to a visual cue presented on the goggles screens. Before the start of head rotation, a target of Landolt C was displayed at a peripheral location that was directed by the head-rotation cue or a symmetric location in the opposite visual field. After each head rotation, participants reported the target's orientation, allowing the measurement of the discrimination threshold. Besides, the discrimination sensitivity was also measured in two head-still conditions with or without the presentation of a visual cue. The results showed that the discrimination performance was largely impaired by the preparation of head rotation. This effect of sensory attenuation increased with the approach of head-motion onset. However, the attenuation was not found on the discrimination of auditory stimuli during the preparation of head rotation, thus excluding the account of general dual-task requirement. In contrast to the previous findings of improved perception by preparation of saccade or reach, our findings indicate that sensory suppression rather than attention shift plays a major role during the preparation of head movement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue Dong
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Min Bao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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35
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The peripheral sensitivity profile at the saccade target reshapes during saccade preparation. Cortex 2021; 139:12-26. [PMID: 33813067 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.02.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/14/2021] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Goal-directed eye movements (saccades) bring peripheral objects of interest into high-acuity foveal vision. In preparation for the incoming foveal image, the perception of the saccade target may sharpen gradually before the eye movement is executed. Indeed, previous studies suggest that pre-saccadic attention shifts enhance sensitivity to high spatial frequencies (SFs) more than sensitivity to lower SFs. This pattern, however, was observed within a narrow frequency range and may reflect local changes in the shape of a broader underlying sensitivity profile. Depending on the development of the profile's shape, SFs above the previously examined range may profit less from saccade preparation. To assess the impact of saccade preparation on the shape of a broader sensitivity profile, we prompted observers to discriminate the orientation of a sinusoidal grating (the probe) presented briefly at the target of an impending saccade, at 10 dva (degree of visual angle) eccentricity. The probe's SF ranged from 1 to 5.5 cycles per dva (cpd) and was unpredictable on a given trial. We fitted observers' response accuracies across SFs with a log-parabolic, that is, inverted U-shaped function. Long before saccade onset, the profile peaked at .6 cpd and dropped off towards lower and higher SFs with broad bandwidth. During saccade preparation, the peak of the profile increased and shifted towards higher SFs while the bandwidth of the profile decreased. As a consequence of this reshaping process, pre-saccadic enhancement increased with SF up to 2.5 cpd, corroborating previous findings. Sensitivities to higher SFs, however, profited less from saccade preparation. We conclude that the extent of pre-saccadic enhancement to a particular SF is governed by its position on a broader sensitivity profile which reshapes substantially during saccade preparation. The shift of the profile's peak towards higher SFs increases resolution at the saccade target even when the features of relevant visual information are unpredictable.
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36
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Parker S, Heathcote A, Finkbeiner M. Spatial Attention and Saccade Preparation Both Independently Contribute to the Discrimination of Oblique Orientations. Adv Cogn Psychol 2021; 16:329-343. [PMID: 33532009 PMCID: PMC7839255 DOI: 10.5709/acp-0307-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The extent to which the preparation of an eye movement and spatial attention both independently influence performance within the same task has long been debated. In a recent study that combined computational modelling with a dual-task, both saccade preparation and spatial cueing were revealed to separately contribute to the discrimination of targets oriented along the cardinal axis (horizontal and vertical). However, it remains to be seen whether and to what degree the same holds true when different perceptual stimuli are used. In the present study, we combined evidence accumulation modelling with a dual-task paradigm to assess the extent to which both saccade preparation and spatial attention contribute to the discrimination of full contrast targets oriented along the oblique axis (diagonal). The results revealed a separate and quantifiable contribution of both types of orienting to discrimination performance. Comparison of the magnitude of these effects to those obtained for cardinal orientation discrimination revealed the influence of saccade preparation and spatial attention to be six times smaller for oblique orientations. Importantly, the results revealed a separate and quantifiable contribution of both saccade preparation and spatial attention regardless of perceptual stimuli or stimulus contrast.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha Parker
- Perception in Action Research Centre and Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Andrew Heathcote
- Department of Psychology, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Matthew Finkbeiner
- Perception in Action Research Centre and Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
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37
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Schweitzer R, Rolfs M. Intra-saccadic motion streaks as cues to linking object locations across saccades. J Vis 2021; 20:17. [PMID: 32334429 PMCID: PMC7405763 DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.4.17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
When visual objects shift rapidly across the retina, they produce motion blur. Intra-saccadic visual signals, caused incessantly by our own saccades, are thought to be eliminated at early stages of visual processing. Here we investigate whether they are still available to the visual system and could—in principle—be used as cues for localizing objects as they change locations on the retina. Using a high-speed projection system, we developed a trans-saccadic identification task in which brief but continuous intra-saccadic object motion was key to successful performance. Observers made a saccade to a target stimulus that moved rapidly either up or down, strictly during the eye movement. Just as the target reached its final position, an identical distractor stimulus appeared on the opposite side, resulting in a display of two identical stimuli upon saccade landing. Observers had to identify the original target using the only available clue: the target's intra-saccadic movement. In an additional replay condition, we presented the observers’ own intra-saccadic retinal stimulus trajectories during fixation. Compared to the replay condition, task performance was impaired during saccades but recovered fully when a post-saccadic blank was introduced. Reverse regression analyses and confirmatory experiments showed that performance increased markedly when targets had long movement durations, low spatial frequencies, and orientations parallel to their retinal trajectory—features that promote intra-saccadic motion streaks. Although the potential functional role of intra-saccadic visual signals is still unclear, our results suggest that they could provide cues to tracking objects that rapidly change locations across saccades.
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38
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39
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Stimulus blanking reveals contrast-dependent transsaccadic feature transfer. Sci Rep 2020; 10:18656. [PMID: 33122762 PMCID: PMC7596086 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75717-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 10/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Across saccadic eye movements, the visual system receives two successive static images corresponding to the pre- and the postsaccadic projections of the visual field on the retina. The existence of a mechanism integrating the content of these images is today still a matter of debate. Here, we studied the transfer of a visual feature across saccades using a blanking paradigm. Participants moved their eyes to a peripheral grating and discriminated a change in its orientation occurring during the eye movement. The grating was either constantly on the screen or briefly blanked during and after the saccade. Moreover, it either was of the same luminance as the background (i.e., isoluminant) or anisoluminant with respect to it. We found that for anisoluminant gratings, the orientation discrimination across saccades was improved when a blank followed the onset of the eye movement. Such effect was however abolished with isoluminant gratings. Additionally, performance was also improved when an anisoluminant grating presented before the saccade was followed by an isoluminant one. These results demonstrate that a detailed representation of the presaccadic image was transferred across saccades allowing participants to perform better on the transsaccadic orientation task. While such a transfer of visual orientation across saccade is masked in real-life anisoluminant conditions, the use of a blank and of an isoluminant postsaccadic grating allowed to reveal its existence.
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40
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Abstract
Despite recent advances on the mechanisms and purposes of fine oculomotor behavior, a rigorous assessment of the precision and accuracy of the smallest saccades is still lacking. Yet knowledge of how effectively these movements shift gaze is necessary for understanding their functions and is helpful in further elucidating their motor underpinnings. Using a combination of high-resolution eye-tracking and gaze-contingent control, here we examined the accuracy and precision of saccades aimed toward targets ranging from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] eccentricity. We show that even small saccades of just 14-[Formula: see text] are very effective in centering the stimulus on the retina. Furthermore, we show that for a target at any given eccentricity, the probability of eliciting a saccade depends on its efficacy in reducing the foveal offset. The pattern of results reported here is consistent with current knowledge on the motor mechanisms of microsaccade production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Poletti
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA.
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA.
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA.
| | - Janis Intoy
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA
- Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Michele Rucci
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA
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41
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Abstract
Selection for visual short-term memory (vstm) provides a basis for many cognitive functions. Saccadic eye movements sway this selection in favor of stimuli previously seen at locations congruent with their target. In three experiments, we provide converging evidence that this saccadic selection is implemented as a fundamental, inevitable selection process, rather than a top-down strategy. In particular, benefits for congruent over incongruent items were largely constant across set sizes ranging from two to eight items (Experiment 1), showing that saccadic selection imposes priorities on vstm irrespective of memory load and is effective even when only few representations need to be maintained. Moreover, a decrement in performance for incongruent items occurred reliably, whether the congruent location contained a task-relevant item or an irrelevant noise patch (Experiment 2). Finally, saccadic selection was immune to a strong manipulation of the observer's attentional priorities (Experiment 3). Given the prevalence of saccades in natural vision, our results demonstrate a fundamental and ecologically relevant selection mechanism for vstm: Saccades systematically eliminate information seen at non-target locations, while information at the saccade target remains available to recall. This simple heuristic is effective in the absence of informative cues and may incapacitate voluntary selection mechanisms that are incongruent with ongoing movement plans.
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42
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Heuer A, Ohl S, Rolfs M. Memory for action: a functional view of selection in visual working memory. VISUAL COGNITION 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2020.1764156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Heuer
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Sven Ohl
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Martin Rolfs
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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43
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Abstract
It is known that attention shifts prior to a saccade to start processing the saccade target before it lands in the foveola, the high-resolution region of the retina. Yet, once the target is foveated, microsaccades, tiny saccades maintaining the fixated object within the fovea, continue to occur. What is the link between these eye movements and attention? There is growing evidence that these eye movements are associated with covert shifts of attention in the visual periphery, when the attended stimuli are presented far from the center of gaze. Yet, microsaccades are primarily used to explore complex foveal stimuli and to optimize fine spatial vision in the foveola, suggesting that the influences of microsaccades on attention may predominantly impact vision at this scale. To address this question we tracked gaze position with high precision and briefly presented high-acuity stimuli at predefined foveal locations right before microsaccade execution. Our results show that visual discrimination changes prior to microsaccade onset. An enhancement occurs at the microsaccade target location. This modulation is highly selective and it is coupled with a drastic impairment at the opposite foveal location, just a few arcminutes away. This effect is strongest when stimuli are presented closer to the eye movement onset time. These findings reveal that the link between attention and microsaccades is deeper than previously thought, exerting its strongest effects within the foveola. As a result, during fixation, foveal vision is constantly being reshaped both in space and in time with the occurrence of microsaccades.
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44
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Abstract
Although our eyes are in constant movement, we remain unaware of the high-speed stimulation produced by the retinal displacement. Vision is drastically reduced at the time of saccades. Here, I investigated whether the reduction of the unwanted disturbance could be established through a saccade-contingent habituation to intra-saccadic displacements. In more than 100 context trials, participants were exposed either to an intra-saccadic or to a post-saccadic disturbance or to no disturbance at all. After induction of a specific context, I measured peri-saccadic suppression. Displacement discrimination thresholds of observers were high after participants were exposed to an intra-saccadic disturbance. However, after exposure to a post-saccadic disturbance or a context without any intra-saccadic stimulation, displacement discrimination improved such that observers were able to see shifts as during fixation. Saccade-contingent habituation might explain why we do not perceive trans-saccadic retinal stimulation during saccades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eckart Zimmermann
- Institute for Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
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45
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Kwon S, Rolfs M, Mitchell JF. Presaccadic motion integration drives a predictive postsaccadic following response. J Vis 2020; 19:12. [PMID: 31557762 DOI: 10.1167/19.11.12] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Saccadic eye movements sample the visual world and ensure high acuity across the visual field. To compensate for delays in processing, saccades to moving targets require predictions: The eyes must intercept the target's future position to then pursue its direction of motion. Although prediction is crucial to voluntary pursuit, it is unclear whether it is an obligatory feature of saccade planning. Saccade planning involves an involuntary enhanced processing of the target, called presaccadic attention. Does this presaccadic attention recruit smooth eye movements automatically? To test this, we had human participants perform a saccade to one of four apertures, which were static, but each contained a random dot field with motion tangential to the required saccade. In this task, saccades were deviated along the direction of target motion, and the eyes exhibited a following response upon saccade landing. This postsaccadic following response (PFR) increased with spatial uncertainty of the target position and persisted even when we removed the motion stimulus in midflight of the saccade, confirming that it relied on presaccadic information. Motion from 50-100 ms prior to the saccade had the strongest influence on PFR, consistent with the time course of perceptual enhancements reported in presaccadic attention. Finally, the PFR magnitude related linearly to the logarithm of stimulus velocity and generally had low gain, similar to involuntary ocular following movements commonly observed after sudden motion onsets. These results suggest that presaccadic attention selects motion features of targets predictively, presumably to ensure successful immediate tracking of saccade targets in motion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunwoo Kwon
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.,Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
| | - Martin Rolfs
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jude F Mitchell
- Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.,Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
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46
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Abstract
Orienting covert spatial attention to a target location enhances visual sensitivity and benefits performance in many visual tasks. How these attention-related improvements in performance affect the underlying visual representation of low-level visual features is not fully understood. Here we focus on characterizing how exogenous spatial attention affects the feature representations of orientation and spatial frequency. We asked observers to detect a vertical grating embedded in noise and performed psychophysical reverse correlation. Doing so allowed us to make comparisons with previous studies that utilized the same task and analysis to assess how endogenous attention and presaccadic modulations affect visual representations. We found that exogenous spatial attention improved performance and enhanced the gain of the target orientation without affecting orientation tuning width. Moreover, we found no change in spatial frequency tuning. We conclude that covert exogenous spatial attention alters performance by strictly boosting gain of orientation-selective filters, much like covert endogenous spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Hsin-Hung Li
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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47
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Stewart EEM, Verghese P, Ma-Wyatt A. The spatial and temporal properties of attentional selectivity for saccades and reaches. J Vis 2020; 19:12. [PMID: 31434108 PMCID: PMC6707227 DOI: 10.1167/19.9.12] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The preparation and execution of saccades and goal-directed movements elicits an accompanying shift in attention at the locus of the impending movement. However, some key aspects of the spatiotemporal profile of this attentional shift between eye and hand movements are not resolved. While there is evidence that attention is improved at the target location when making a reach, it is not clear how attention shifts over space and time around the movement target as a saccade and a reach are made to that target. Determining this spread of attention is an important aspect in understanding how attentional resources are used in relation to movement planning and guidance in real world tasks. We compared performance on a perceptual discrimination paradigm during a saccade-alone task, reach-alone task, and a saccade-plus-reach task to map the temporal profile of the premotor attentional shift at the goal of the movement and at three surrounding locations. We measured performance relative to a valid baseline level to determine whether motor planning induces additional attentional facilitation compared to mere covert attention. Sensitivity increased relative to movement onset at the target and at the surrounding locations, for both the saccade-alone and saccade-plus-reach conditions. The results suggest that the temporal profile of the attentional shift is similar for the two tasks involving saccades (saccade-alone and saccade-plus-reach tasks), but is very different when the influence of the saccade is removed. In this case, performance in the saccade-plus-reach task reflects the lower sensitivity observed when a reach-alone task is being conducted. In addition, the spatial profile of this spread of attention is not symmetrical around the target. This suggests that when a saccade and reach are being planned together, the saccade drives the attentional shift, and the reach-alone carries little attentional weight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma E M Stewart
- School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Preeti Verghese
- The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Anna Ma-Wyatt
- School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
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48
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Watson TL, Lappe M. Fixation related shifts of perceptual localization counter to saccade direction. J Vis 2019; 19:18. [PMID: 31755903 DOI: 10.1167/19.13.18] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Perisaccadic compression of the perceived location of flashed visual stimuli toward a saccade target occurs from about 50 ms before a saccade. Here we show that between 150 and 80 ms before a saccade, perceived locations are shifted toward the fixation point. To establish the cause of the "reverse" presaccadic perceptual distortion, participants completed several versions of a saccade task. After a cue to saccade, a probe bar stimulus was briefly presented within the saccade trajectory. In Experiment 1 participants made (a) overlap saccades with immediate return saccades, (b) overlap saccades, and (c) step saccades. In Experiment 2 participants made gap saccades in complete darkness. In Experiment 3 participants maintained fixation with the probe stimuli masked at various interstimulus intervals. Participants indicated the bar's location using a mouse cursor. In all conditions in Experiment 1 presaccadic compression was preceded by compression toward the initial fixation. In Experiment 2, saccadic compression was maintained but the preceding countercompression was not observed. Stimuli masked at fixation were not compressed. This suggests the two opposing compression effects are related to the act of executing an eye movement. They are also not caused by the requirement to make two sequential saccades ending at the initial fixation location and are not caused by continuous presence of the fixation markers. We propose that countercompression is related to fixation activity and is part of the sequence of motor preparations to execute a cued saccade.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamara L Watson
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, NSW, Australia
| | - Markus Lappe
- Institute for Psychology and Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Germany
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Hanning NM, Deubel H, Szinte M. Sensitivity measures of visuospatial attention. J Vis 2019; 19:17. [DOI: 10.1167/19.12.17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Nina M. Hanning
- Allgemeine und Experimentelle Psychologie, Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany
- Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Department Biologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Planegg, Germany
| | - Heiner Deubel
- Allgemeine und Experimentelle Psychologie, Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany
| | - Martin Szinte
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Marseille, France
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- ://www.martinszinte.net
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Szinte M, Puntiroli M, Deubel H. The spread of presaccadic attention depends on the spatial configuration of the visual scene. Sci Rep 2019; 9:14034. [PMID: 31575909 PMCID: PMC6773758 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50541-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2018] [Accepted: 09/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
When preparing a saccade, attentional resources are focused at the saccade target and its immediate vicinity. Here we show that this does not hold true when saccades are prepared toward a recently extinguished target. We obtained detailed maps of orientation sensitivity when participants prepared a saccade toward a target that either remained on the screen or disappeared before the eyes moved. We found that attention was mainly focused on the immediate surround of the visible target and spread to more peripheral locations as a function of the distance from the cue and the delay between the target's disappearance and the saccade. Interestingly, this spread was not accompanied with a spread of the saccade endpoint. These results suggest that presaccadic attention and saccade programming are two distinct processes that can be dissociated as a function of their interaction with the spatial configuration of the visual scene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Szinte
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 7289, Marseille, 13005, France. .,Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
| | - Michael Puntiroli
- Institute of Management, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Heiner Deubel
- Allgemeine und Experimentelle Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
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