Saccades and reaches, behaving differently

Previously, we have shown, both in humans and monkeys, that the latencies of exogenously generated saccades decrease with an increase in the number of response alternatives (Lawrence et al. in J Vis 8:26, 1-7, 2008). Because this pattern of latencies was in the direction opposite that predicted by Hick (Q J Exp Psychol 4:11-26, 1952), we termed the effect an "anti-Hick's" effect. In contrast, previous research has shown that reach latencies increase with an increase in response alternatives (e.g., Wright et al. in Exp Brain Res 179:475-496, 2007). Given that there are known interactions between the saccade and reach systems, we examined whether the direction of the relationship between latencies and response alternatives differed when saccades and reaches are concomitantly executed. Interestingly, we found that the pattern of latencies nevertheless persisted in a visually guided saccade and reach task. These results place an important constraint on the anti-Hick's effect, suggesting not only that the effect is localized within the saccade system, but also that it is localized in the saccade system at a level in which saccade and reach signals do not interact.