Spatial Attention and Eye Movements

2017 ◽  
pp. 159-196
Author(s):  
Stefan Van der Stigchel ◽  
Tanja C.W. Nijboer
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Attention

scholarly journals Visual attention is available at a task-relevant location rapidly after a saccade

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Yao ◽  
Madhura Ketkar ◽  
Stefan Treue ◽  
B Suresh Krishna
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Neuronal Population ◽  
Attentional Modulation ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
The One ◽  
Precise Time

Maintaining attention at a task-relevant spatial location while making eye-movements necessitates a rapid, saccade-synchronized shift of attentional modulation from the neuronal population representing the task-relevant location before the saccade to the one representing it after the saccade. Currently, the precise time at which spatial attention becomes fully allocated to the task-relevant location after the saccade remains unclear. Using a fine-grained temporal analysis of human peri-saccadic detection performance in an attention task, we show that spatial attention is fully available at the task-relevant location within 30 milliseconds after the saccade. Subjects tracked the attentional target veridically throughout our task: i.e. they almost never responded to non-target stimuli. Spatial attention and saccadic processing therefore co-ordinate well to ensure that relevant locations are attentionally enhanced soon after the beginning of each eye fixation.

scholarly journals Voluntary Spatial Attention has Different Effects on Voluntary and Reflexive Saccades

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 881-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie K. Seidlits ◽  
Tammie Reza ◽  
Kevin A. Briand ◽  
Anne B. Sereno
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Fundamental Issue ◽  
Fixation Condition ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Symbolic Cues ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Reflexive Saccades ◽  
Gap Paradigm

Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between saccadic eye movements and spatial attention, one fundamental issue remains controversial. Some studies have suggested that spatial attention facilitates saccades, whereas others have claimed that eye movements are actually inhibited when spatial attention is engaged. However, these discrepancies may be because previous research has neglected to separate and specify the effects of attention for two distinct types of saccades, namely reflexive (stimulus-directed) and voluntary (antisaccades). The present study explored the effects of voluntary spatial attention on both voluntary and reflexive saccades. Results indicate that voluntary spatial attention has different effects on the two types of saccades. Antisaccades were always greatly facilitated following the engagement of spatial attention by symbolic cues (arrows) informing the subject where the upcoming saccade should be directed. Reflexive saccades showed little or no cueing effects and exhibited significant facilitation only when these cues were randomly intermixed with uncued trials. In addition, the present study tested the effects of fixation condition (gap, step, and overlap) on attentional modulation. Cueing effects did not vary due to fixation condition. Thus, voluntary spatial attention consistently showed different effects on voluntary and reflexive saccades, and there was no evidence in these studies that voluntary cues inhibit reflexive saccades, even in a gap paradigm.

Short Report: Scrutinization, Spatial Attention, and the Spatial Programming of Saccadic Eye Movements

1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Findlay ◽  
Zoi Kapoula
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Short Report ◽  
Similar Material ◽  
Visual Tasks ◽  
Corrective Saccade ◽  
Spatial Programming

Results are presented from an experiment in which subjects’ eye movements were recorded while they carried out two visual tasks with similar material. One task was chosen to require close visual scrutiny; the second was less visually demanding. The oculomotor behaviour in the two tasks differed in three ways. (1) When scrutinizing, there was a reduction in the area of visual space over which stimulation influences saccadic eye movements. (2) When moving their eyes to targets requiring scrutiny, subjects were more likely to make a corrective saccade. (3) The duration of fixations on targets requiring scrutiny was increased. The results are discussed in relation to current theories of visual attention and the control of saccadic eye movements.

scholarly journals Rhythmic neural spiking and attentional sampling arising from cortical receptive field interactions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Kienitz ◽  
Joscha T. Schmiedt ◽  
Katharine A. Shapcott ◽  
Kleopatra Kouroupaki ◽  
Richard C. Saunders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
List Type ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Area V4 ◽  
Fixational Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Cortical Area

SummaryGrowing evidence suggests that distributed spatial attention may invoke theta (3-9 Hz) rhythmic sampling processes. The neuronal basis of such attentional sampling is however not fully understood. Here we show using array recordings in visual cortical area V4 of two awake macaques that presenting separate visual stimuli to the excitatory center and suppressive surround of neuronal receptive fields elicits rhythmic multi-unit activity (MUA) at 3-6 Hz. This neuronal rhythm did not depend on small fixational eye movements. In the context of a distributed spatial attention task, during which the monkeys detected a spatially and temporally uncertain target, reaction times (RT) exhibited similar rhythmic fluctuations. RTs were fast or slow depending on the target occurrence during high or low MUA, resulting in rhythmic MUA-RT cross-correlations at at theta frequencies. These findings suggest that theta-rhythmic neuronal activity arises from competitive receptive field interactions and that this rhythm may subserve attentional sampling.HighlightsCenter-surround interactions induce theta-rhythmic MUA of visual cortex neuronsThe MUA rhythm does not depend on small fixational eye movementsReaction time fluctuations lock to the neuronal rhythm under distributed attention

scholarly journals The eye that binds: Feature integration is not disrupted by saccadic eye movements

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 533-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Reuther ◽  
Ramakrishna Chakravarthi ◽  
Amelia R. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Feature Integration ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Conjunction Errors ◽  
Retinal Motion ◽  
Retinotopic Maps ◽  
Feature Integration Theory

AbstractFeature integration theory proposes that visual features, such as shape and color, can only be combined into a unified object when spatial attention is directed to their location in retinotopic maps. Eye movements cause dramatic changes on our retinae, and are associated with obligatory shifts in spatial attention. In two experiments, we measured the prevalence of conjunction errors (that is, reporting an object as having an attribute that belonged to another object), for brief stimulus presentation before, during, and after a saccade. Planning and executing a saccade did not itself disrupt feature integration. Motion did disrupt feature integration, leading to an increase in conjunction errors. However, retinal motion of an equal extent but caused by saccadic eye movements is spared this disruption, and showed similar rates of conjunction errors as a condition with static stimuli presented to a static eye. The results suggest that extra-retinal signals are able to compensate for the motion caused by saccadic eye movements, thereby preserving the integrity of objects across saccades and preventing their features from mixing or mis-binding.

Interference with Rehearsal in Spatial Working Memory in the Absence of Eye Movements

1996 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 940-949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary M. Smyth
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Encoding ◽  
Rehearsal Strategy ◽  
The Right ◽  
Attention Shifts

We have previously argued that rehearsal in spatial working memory is interfered with by spatial attention shifts rather than simply by movements to locations in space (Smyth & Scholey, 1994). It is possible, however, that the stimuli intended to induce attention shifts in our experiments also induced eye movements and interfered either with an overt eye movement rehearsal strategy or with a covert one. In the first experiment reported here, subjects fixated while they maintained a sequence of spatial items in memory before recalling them in order. Fixation did not affect recall, but auditory spatial stimuli presented during the interval did decrease performance, and it was further decreased if the stimuli were categorized as coming from the right or the left. A second experiment investigated the effects of auditory spatial stimuli to which no response was ever required and found that these did not interfere with performance, indicating that it is the spatial salience of targets that leads to interference. This interference from spatial input in the absence of any overt movement of the eyes or limbs is interpreted in terms of shifts of spatial attention or spatial monitoring, which Morris (1989) has suggested affects spatial encoding and which our findings suggest also affects reactivation in rehearsal.

scholarly journals Placeholder objects shape spatial attention effects before eye movements

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Puntiroli ◽  
Dirk Kerzel ◽  
Sabine Born
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Attention
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