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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
Divergence influences triggering of both vertical and horizontal saccades
Marine Vernet1, Qing Yang, Gintautas Daunys
1IRIS Team, CNRS Paris, Paris, France. marine.vernet@espci.org
Purpose:
In real life, divergence is frequently combined with vertical saccades. The purpose of this study was to examine the initiation of vertical and horizontal saccades, pure or combined with divergence.
Methods:
We used a gap paradigm to elicit vertical or horizontal saccades (10 degrees), pure or combined with a predictable divergence (10 degrees). Eye movements from 12 subjects were recorded with EyeLink II.
Results:
The major results were (i) when combined with divergence, the latency of horizontal saccades increased but not the latency of vertical saccades; (ii) for both vertical and horizontal saccades, a tight correlation between the latency of saccade and divergence was found; (iii) when the divergence was anticipated, the saccade was delayed.
Conclusion:
We conclude that the initiation of both components of combined movements is interdependent.
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