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Published on: March 25, 2011
Spatial and temporal effects of spatial attention on human saccadic eye movements
1Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Charing Cross Hospital, London, England.
Vision Research
|February 1, 1992
Summary
Attentional orienting affects saccadic eye movements differently than manual responses. Overt orienting (eye movements) programs direction and amplitude holistically, while covert orienting (manual responses) programs motor parameters hierarchically.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Oculomotor Research
- Human Factors
Background:
- Attentional orienting influences sensory and motor processes.
- Understanding saccadic eye movement programming is crucial for cognitive science.
- Previous research suggests distinct mechanisms for overt and covert attention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how attentional orienting affects spatial and temporal saccadic eye movement parameters.
- To examine hierarchical programming hypotheses for saccade direction and amplitude.
- To compare overt (saccadic) and covert (manual) orienting responses.
Main Methods:
- A spatial cueing paradigm with valid, neutral, and invalid cues was employed.
- Saccadic eye movements and simple reaction times (RT) were measured at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs).
- Targets were presented at varying eccentricities and locations relative to cues.
Main Results:
- Cueing significantly affected saccade latencies at a 100 msec SOA but not at 500 msec.
- Cueing effects on saccades were location-specific, with no benefits for non-cued locations.
- Simple reaction times showed significant cueing effects at both 100 msec and 500 msec SOAs, with benefits for the cued hemifield.
Conclusions:
- Saccadic eye movements (overt orienting) exhibit holistic programming of direction and amplitude.
- Covert orienting (manual responses) involves hierarchical programming of motor parameters.
- Distinct neural mechanisms likely underlie overt and covert attentional orienting.
