Saccades to somatosensory targets. I. behavioral characteristics

1996 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 412-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Groh ◽  
D. L. Sparks
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Velocity Amplitude ◽  
Visual Frame ◽  
Saccade Velocity ◽  
Saccade Task ◽  
Visual Targets

1. We compared the properties of saccades to somatosensory and visual targets. This comparison provides insight into the translation of sensory signals coding target location in different sensory coordinate frameworks into motor commands of a common format. Vibrotactile stimuli were delivered to the hands, which were fixed in position and concealed beneath a barrier. Saccades of different directions and amplitudes were elicited by the same somatosensory target from different initial eye positions. Both monkeys and humans served as subjects. 2. Somatosensory saccades were less accurate than visual saccades in both humans and monkeys. When the barrier concealing the hands was removed, somatosensory saccade accuracy improved. While the hands were concealed, the visual frame of reference provided by room illumination did not greatly affect saccade accuracy: accuracy was not degraded in complete darkness for two of three monkeys. 3. The endpoints of saccades to a single somatosensory target varied with initial eye position for the monkeys, but not for the human subjects. 4. We also found evidence of an effect of limb position on somatosensory saccades: when human subjects performed the task with crossed hands, the incidence of curved saccades increased. Saccades often began in the direction of the unstimulated hand and curved markedly toward the stimulated hand. When one subject was required to delay the saccade by 600-1,000 ms after target onset (the delayed saccade task), the saccades were straight. Somatosensory saccades were also straight when the hands were not crossed. 5. The reaction times of somatosensory saccades were longer than the reaction times of visual saccades, and they decreased as a function of saccade amplitude. The delayed saccade task reduced the differences between somatosensory and visual saccade reaction times. The reaction times of saccades to very dim visual targets increased into the range found for saccades to somatosensory targets. When the saccade target was the combination of the somatosensory and visual stimuli at the same location, the reaction time was slightly lower than for visual targets alone. 6. The peak velocities of somatosensory saccades were lower than those of visual saccades of the same amplitude. The velocities of saccades to combined somatosensory and visual targets were indistinguishable from those of saccades to visual targets alone. The differences between somatosensory and visual saccade velocity were maintained in the delayed trial type. These differences suggest that the main sequence or velocity-amplitude relationship characteristic of saccades depends on the modality of the target. 7. The implications of these modality-dependent differences in accuracy, reaction time, and saccade velocity are discussed with regard to models of the saccade generator and the coordinate transformation necessary for somatosensory saccades.

Rolling balance board of adjustable geometry as a tool to assess balancing skill and to estimate reaction time delay

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (176) ◽  
Author(s):  
Csenge A. Molnar ◽  
Ambrus Zelei ◽  
Tamas Insperger
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Time Delay ◽  
Feedback Control ◽  
Mechanical Model ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Stabilizing Feedback Control ◽  
Model Subject ◽  
Balance Board

The relation between balancing performance and reaction time is investigated for human subjects balancing on rolling balance board of adjustable physical parameters: adjustable rolling radius R and adjustable board elevation h . A well-defined measure of balancing performance is whether a subject can or cannot balance on balance board with a given geometry ( R , h ). The balancing ability is linked to the stabilizability of the underlying two-degree-of-freedom mechanical model subject to a delayed proportional–derivative feedback control. Although different sensory perceptions involve different reaction times at different hierarchical feedback loops, their effect is modelled as a single lumped reaction time delay. Stabilizability is investigated in terms of the time delay in the mechanical model: if the delay is larger than a critical value (critical delay), then no stabilizing feedback control exists. Series of balancing trials by 15 human subjects show that it is more difficult to balance on balance board configuration associated with smaller critical delay, than on balance boards associated with larger critical delay. Experiments verify the feature of the mechanical model that a change in the rolling radius R results in larger change in the difficulty of the task than the same change in the board elevation h does. The rolling balance board characterized by the two well-defined parameters R and h can therefore be a useful device to assess human balancing skill and to estimate the corresponding lumped reaction time delay.

Occurrence of express saccades under isoluminance and low contrast luminance conditions

1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 505-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Weber ◽  
Burkhart Fischer ◽  
Michael Bach ◽  
Franz Aiple
Keyword(s):  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
White Background ◽  
Color Contrast ◽  
Express Saccades ◽  
Low Contrast ◽  
Green Background ◽  
White Target

AbstractSaccadic reaction times (SRTs) of three human subjects were analyzed. The gap paradigm was used (i.e. fixation point offset precedes target onset) to obtain high proportions of express saccades (i.e. saccades of extremely short reaction times) in the SRT distributions. In one set of experiments, the luminance of the (red) saccade target was varied from brighter to darker than the (green) background including an isoluminance condition. Express saccades were obtained in response to pure color contrast stimuli with about the same frequency and reaction time as to stimuli with both color and luminance contrast. In a second experiment, the luminance contrast of a white target on a white background was lowered below 10%. Again the number of express saccades was not reduced. Thus, in contrast to other perceptual phenomena the visual neural mechanisms underlying the generation of express saccades are not affected by isoluminance nor low contrast luminance.

Temperament and attentional focus: Reaction time indicators of bias and cue salience

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-297
Author(s):  
Elizabeth R. Spievak ◽  
Anne M. Murtagh
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Personality Variables ◽  
Cue Salience ◽  
Trial Participants

This study was designed to test and extend prior work that linked personality variables, incentive cues and target detection reaction times. Participants completed a task in which they believed they might gain or lose points, depending upon the target location and their reaction time. After each trial, participants received a randomly generated positive or negative "feedback" message. Those higher in neuroticism showed shorter reaction times on trials following positive feedback. Participants higher in neuroticism and trait anxiety and those with lower scores for self-esteem and venturesomeness were more attentive to point-loss cues. Response times were longer for those who scored higher in trait anxiety and lower in self-esteem. Implications for understanding individual differences in attention and feedback response are discussed.

Visual and Saccade-Related Activity in Macaque Posterior Cingulate Cortex

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (5) ◽  
pp. 3056-3068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather L. Dean ◽  
Justin C. Crowley ◽  
Michael L. Platt
Keyword(s):  
Target Location ◽  
Neuronal Response ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Posterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Target Onset ◽  
Fixation Stimulus ◽  
Posterior Cingulate ◽  
Neurophysiological Studies ◽  
Visual Targets

Previous neurophysiological studies have reported that neurons in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) respond after eye movements, and that these responses may vary with ambient illumination. In monkeys, PCC neurons also respond after the illumination of large visual patterns but not after the illumination of small visual targets on either reflexive saccade tasks or peripheral attention tasks. These observations suggest that neuronal activity in PCC is modulated by behavioral context, which varies with the timing and spatial distribution of visual and oculomotor events. To test this hypothesis, we measured the spatial and temporal response properties of single PCC neurons in monkeys performing saccades in which target location and movement timing varied unpredictably. Specifically, an unsignaled delay between target onset and movement onset permitted us to temporally dissociate changes in PCC activity associated with either event. Response fields constructed from these data demonstrated that many PCC neurons were activated after the illumination of small contralateral visual targets, as well as after the onset of contraversive saccades guided by those targets. In addition, the PCC population maintained selectivity for small contralateral targets during delays of up to 600 ms. Overall, PCC activation was highly variable trial to trial and selective for a broad range of directions and amplitudes. Planar functions described response fields nearly as well as broadly tuned 2-dimensional Gaussian functions. Additionally, the overall responsiveness of PCC neurons decreased during delays when both a fixation stimulus and a saccade target were visible, suggesting a modulation by divided attention. Finally, the strength of the neuronal response after target onset was correlated with saccade accuracy on delayed-saccade trials. Thus PCC neurons may signal salient visual and oculomotor events, consistent with a role in visual orienting and attention.

scholarly journals Activity in the Parabigeminal Nucleus During Eye Movements Directed at Moving and Stationary Targets

2003 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 3128-3142 ◽  
Author(s):  
He Cui ◽  
Joseph G. Malpeli
Keyword(s):  
Target Location ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Visual Axis ◽  
Retinal Position ◽  
Visuomotor Behavior ◽  
Order Tracking ◽  
Area Centralis ◽  
Saccade Velocity ◽  
Parabigeminal Nucleus ◽  
Catch Up

The parabigeminal nucleus (PBN) is a small satellite of the superior colliculus located on the edge of the midbrain. To identify activity related to visuomotor behavior, we recorded from PBN cells in cats trained to fixate moving and stationary targets. Cats tracked moving targets primarily with small catch-up saccades, and for target speeds of 2–6°/s, they did so with sufficient accuracy to keep targets within 2.5° of the visual axis most of the time. During intersaccade intervals of such close-order tracking, PBN cells fired at rates related to retinal position error (RPE), the distance between the center of the retina and the saccade target. Each cell was characterized by a best direction of RPE. Most commonly, activity rose rapidly with increasing RPE, peaked at a small RPE within the area centralis, and dropped off gradually with increasing target distance. For some cells, the range over which activity was monotonically related to RPE was considerably larger, but because the PBN was not systematically sampled, the maximum range of RPE encoded is presently unknown. During saccades, activity began to change at about peak saccade velocity and then rapidly reached a level appropriate to the RPE achieved at saccade end. Most response fields were large, and stationary saccade targets presented anywhere within them evoked brisk responses that terminated abruptly on saccade offset. Spontaneous saccades in the dark had little effect on PBN activity. These data suggest that the PBN is an integral part of a midbrain circuit generating target location information.

scholarly journals Increased preparation time reduces, but does not abolish, action history bias of saccadic eye movements

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 1478-1490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva-Maria Reuter ◽  
Welber Marinovic ◽  
Timothy N. Welsh ◽  
Timothy J. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Limb Movements ◽  
Preparation Time ◽  
Movement History ◽  
Target Locations ◽  
Dependent Processes

The characteristics of movements are strongly history-dependent. Marinovic et al. (Marinovic W, Poh E, de Rugy A, Carroll TJ. eLife 6: e26713, 2017) showed that past experience influences the execution of limb movements through a combination of temporally stable processes that are strictly use dependent and dynamically evolving and context-dependent processes that reflect prediction of future actions. Here we tested the basis of history-dependent biases for multiple spatiotemporal features of saccadic eye movements under two preparation time conditions (long and short). Twenty people performed saccades to visual targets. To prompt context-specific expectations of most likely target locations, 1 of 12 potential target locations was specified on ~85% of the trials and each remaining target was presented on ~1% trials. In long preparation trials participants were shown the location of the next target 1 s before its presentation onset, whereas in short preparation trials each target was first specified as the cue to move. Saccade reaction times and direction were biased by recent saccade history but according to distinct spatial tuning profiles. Biases were purely expectation related for saccadic reaction times, which increased linearly as the distance from the repeated target location increased when preparation time was short but were similar to all targets when preparation time was long. By contrast, the directions of saccades were biased toward the repeated target in both preparation time conditions, although to a lesser extent when the target location was precued (long preparation). The results suggest that saccade history affects saccade dynamics via both use- and expectation-dependent mechanisms and that movement history has dissociable effects on reaction time and saccadic direction. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The characteristics of our movements are influenced not only by concurrent sensory inputs but also by how we have moved in the past. For limb movements, history effects involve both use-dependent processes due strictly to movement repetition and processes that reflect prediction of future actions. Here we show that saccade history also affects saccade dynamics via use- and expectation-dependent mechanisms but that movement history has dissociable effects on saccade reaction time and direction.

scholarly journals Uncertainty in aiming movements and its association to hand function

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávia Priscila de Paiva Silva ◽  
Sandra Maria Sbeghen Ferreira de Freitas ◽  
Emelli da Silva Comenalle ◽  
Sandra Regina Alouche
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Hand Function ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Manual Dexterity ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Pinch Strength ◽  
Aiming Movements ◽  
Manual Tasks ◽  
The Right

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of the uncertainty of target location on the planning and execution of aiming movements performed towards the ipsilateral and contralateral directions by the right and left upper limbs. In addition, the association between the performance of aiming movements and the performance of functional manual tasks was investigated. Two tasks were proposed: with prior knowledge of the movement direction (simple reaction time) or not (choice reaction time). The grip strength and manual dexterity were measured. The choice option in response (i.e. uncertainty) influenced planning of the aiming movements, but not its execution, while movements performed towards the contralateral direction were worse in execution as compared to the ipsilateral direction. Manual dexterity was significantly correlated with reaction times, while the performance during movement execution was significantly correlated with handgrip/pinch strength.

Control of Sensorimotor Variability by Consequences

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 2255-2265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Madelain ◽  
Lucie Champrenaut ◽  
Alan Chauvin
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Time Variability ◽  
Manual Response ◽  
Reaction Time Variability ◽  
Latency Distributions

Studies of reaction-time distributions provide a useful quantitative approach to understand decision processes at the neural level and at the behavioral level. A strong relationship between the spread of latencies and the median is generally accepted even though there has been no attempt to disentangle experimentally these two parameters. Here we test the ability to independently control the median and the variability in reaction times. Reaction times were measured in human subjects instructed to make a discrimination between a target and a distractor in a 2AFC task. In a first experiment, saccadic latencies were measured. In a second experiment, we used manual response reaction times. Subjects were trained to produce four different reaction-time distributions. A reinforcing feedback was given depending on both the variability and the median of the latency distributions. When low variability was reinforced, the standard deviation (SD) of reaction-time distributions were reduced by a factor of two and when high variability was reinforced, the SD returned to baseline level. Our procedure independently affected the spread and the median of the distribution patterns. By fitting the latency distributions using the Reddi and Carpenter LATER model, we found that these effects could be simulated by changing the distribution of the noise affecting the decision process. Our results demonstrate that learned contingencies can affect reaction time variability and support the view that the so-called noise level in decision processes can undergo long-term changes.

scholarly journals Influence of Previous Visual Stimulus or Saccade on Saccadic Reaction Times in Monkey

1999 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. 2429-2436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Dorris ◽  
Tracy L. Taylor ◽  
Raymond M. Klein ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Initial Stimulus ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Saccadic Reaction Times ◽  
Saccadic Target ◽  
Central Fixation

Influence of previous visual stimulus or saccade on saccadic reaction times in monkey. Saccadic reaction times (SRTs) to suddenly appearing targets are influenced by neural processes that occur before and after target presentation. The majority of previous studies have focused on how posttarget factors, such as target attributes or changes in task complexity, affect SRTs. Studies of pretarget factors have focused on how prior knowledge of the timing or location of the impending target, gathered through cueing or probabilistic information, affects SRTs. Our goal was to investigate additional pretarget factors to determine whether SRTs can also be influenced by the history of saccadic and visual activity even when these factors are spatially unpredictive as to the location of impending saccadic targets. Monkeys were trained on two paradigms. In the saccade-saccadeparadigm, monkeys were required to follow a saccadic target that stepped from a central location, to an eccentric location, back to center, and finally to a second eccentric location. The stimulus-saccade paradigm was similar, except the central fixation target remained illuminated during presentation of the first eccentric stimulus; the monkey was required to maintain central fixation and to make a saccade to the second eccentric stimulus only on disappearance of the fixation point. In both paradigms, the first eccentric stimulus was presented at the same, opposite, or orthogonal location with respect to the final target location in a given trial. We measured SRTs to the final target under conditions in which all parameters were identical except for the location of the first eccentric stimulus. In the saccade-saccade paradigm, we found that the SRT to the final target was slowest when it was presented opposite to the initial saccadic target, whereas in the stimulus-saccade paradigm the SRT to the final target was slowest when it was presented at the same location as the initial stimulus. In both paradigms, these increases in SRTs were greatest during the shortest intervals between presentation of successive eccentric stimuli, yet these effects remained present for the longest intervals employed in this study. SRTs became faster as the direction and eccentricity of the two successive stimuli became increasingly misaligned from that which produced the maximal SRT slowing in each paradigm. The results of the stimulus-saccade paradigm are similar to the phenomenon of inhibition of return (IOR) in which human subjects are slower to respond to stimuli that are presented at previously cued locations. We interpret these findings in terms of overlapping representations of visuospatial and oculomotor activity in the same neural structures.

Evidence for Psychological Refractory Effect in Motor Inhibition for a Dual-Response Go/No-Go Task

1997 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-568
Author(s):  
Miya Muroi ◽  
Eiichi Naito ◽  
Michikazu Matsumura
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Motor Programming ◽  
Motor Inhibition ◽  
Motor Execution ◽  
Dual Response ◽  
Discrete Responses ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Mean Reaction Time

Human subjects exhibit difficulty in initiating two independent, discrete responses in close succession, a difficulty known as the ‘psychological refractory effect.’ It is not yet known whether motor-inhibition processes are under the influence of this effect, as are motor-execution processes. This study examined the temporal changes of subjects' reaction times, interpreted in terms of motor programming for inhibition, in a dual-response Go/No-Go task that required two independent responses in close succession Light subjects performed the task with both a shorter (400 msec.) and a longer interstunulus interval (800 msec). The mean reaction time for the second stimulus (RT2) in the Go response of the 400-msec. condition was significantly longer than that of the 800-msec. condition. For committed error responses during the No-Go trials, the mean RT2 in the 400-msec. condition was longer than that in the 800-msec. condition. The total number of these errors in the 400-msec. condition was significantly greater than that in the 800-msec. condition. These results suggested that both the motor-execution processes and motor-inhibition processes were influenced by the psychological refractory effect.

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