Cortical Dynamics during the Preparation of Antisaccadic and Prosaccadic Eye Movements in Humans in a 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.

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Decreases in the Latency of Smooth Pursuit and Saccadic Eye Movements Produced by the “Gap Paradigm” in the Monkey

Vision Research ◽

10.1016/0042-6989(95)00307-x ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 36 (13) ◽

pp. 1973-1985 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

R.J KRAUZLIS ◽

F.A MILES

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Smooth Pursuit ◽

Saccadic Eye Movements ◽

Gap Paradigm

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Head and eye movements are each facilitated by the offset of a central fixation point in a virtual gap paradigm

Experimental Brain Research ◽

10.1007/s00221-020-05905-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jason Flindall ◽

Aman Sara ◽

Alan Kingstone

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Central Fixation Point ◽

Gap Paradigm ◽

Central Fixation

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Cortical dynamics of bistable form/motion binding: fMRI and eye movements

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/8.6.1105 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 8 (6) ◽

pp. 1105-1105

Author(s):

J. Lorenceau ◽

A.-L. Paradis ◽

C. Lamirel ◽

J.-B. Poline ◽

E. Artiges ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Cortical Dynamics

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Effects of aging on regular and express latencies of vergence

Journal of Eye Movement Research ◽

10.16910/jemr.1.3.3 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Qing Yang ◽

Thanh-Thuan Le ◽

Zoi Kapoula

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Target Onset ◽

Aging Effects ◽

Median Line ◽

Fixed Stimulus ◽

Convergence And Divergence ◽

Young Subjects ◽

Voluntary Eye Movements ◽

Effects Of Aging ◽

Gap Paradigm

Vergence eye movements are frequent in every day life and important for depth perception. Yet, studies of vergence in elderly are rare. We examined convergence and divergence between targets placed along median line at 20, 40 or 150cm. Thirteen elderly (70±11years) and ten young (25±3years) adults participated in the study. The gap paradigm (i.e., the fixed stimulus is extinguished prior to target onset) and the overlap paradigm (the fixed stimulus remains illuminated after target onset) were used to elicit reflexive or voluntary eye movements. Latency of convergence and divergence increased with age in both gap and overlap conditions. Both young subjects and elderly showed shorter latency of vergence under the gap condition than under the overlap condition. In the overlap condition, for elderly only, convergence resulted in longer latencies than divergence. In the gap condition express convergence was rare, while express latencies (80–120ms) were frequent for divergence starting from a near fixation point (at 20cm). The rates of express divergence were similar for young (23%) and elderly (21%). These results were in line with prior studies of saccades and indicated different aging effects on regular and express latencies.

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Cortical dynamics of saccade-target selection during free-viewing of natural scenes

10.1101/075929 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Linda Henriksson ◽

Kaisu Ölander ◽

Riitta Hari

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Visual Similarity ◽

Visual Scene ◽

Saccade Target ◽

Natural Scenes ◽

Cortical Dynamics ◽

Low Level ◽

Gaze Behaviour ◽

Different Parts

ABSTRACTNatural visual behaviour entails explorative eye movements, saccades, that bring different parts of a visual scene into the central vision. The neural processes guiding the selection of saccade targets are still largely unknown. Therefore, in this study, we tracked with magnetoencephalography (MEG) cortical dynamics of viewers who were freely exploring novel natural scenes. Overall, the viewers were largely consistent in their gaze behaviour, especially if the scene contained any persons. We took a fresh approach to relate the eye-gaze data to the MEG signals by characterizing dynamic cortical representations by means of representational distance matrices. Specifically, we compared the representational distances between the stimuli in the evoked MEG responses with predictions based (1) on the low-level visual similarity of the stimuli (as visually more similar stimuli evoke more similar responses in early visual areas) and (2) on the eye-gaze data. At 50–75 ms after the scene onset, the similarity of the occipital MEG patterns correlated with the low-level visual similarity of the scenes, and already at 75–100 ms the visual features attracting the first saccades predicted the similarity of the right parieto-occipital MEG responses. Thereafter, at 100–125 ms, the landing positions of the upcoming saccades explained MEG responses. These results indicate that MEG signals contain signatures of the rapid processing of natural visual scenes as well as of the initiation of the first saccades, with the processing of the saccade target preceding the processing of the landing position of the upcoming saccade.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTHumans naturally make eye movements to bring different parts of a visual scene to the fovea where our visual acuity is the best. Tracking of eye gaze can reveal how we make inferences about the content of a scene by looking at different objects, or which visual cues automatically attract our attention and gaze. The brain dynamics governing natural gaze behaviour is still largely unknown. Here we suggest a novel approach to relate eye-tracking results with brain activity, as measured with magnetoencephalography (MEG), and demonstrate signatures of natural gaze behaviour in the MEG data already before the eye movements occur.

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