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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Quantification of Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice
Published on: June 23, 2023
Selection within visual memory representations activates the oculomotor system
Artem V Belopolsky1, Jan Theeuwes
1Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands. A.Belopolsky@psy.vu.nl
Abstract:
Humans tend to create and maintain internal representations of the environment that help guiding actions during the everyday activities. Previous studies have shown that the oculomotor system is involved in coding and maintenance of locations in visual-spatial working memory. In these studies selection of the relevant location for maintenance in working memory took place on the screen (selecting the location of a dot presented on the screen). The present study extended these findings by showing that the oculomotor system also codes selection of location from an internal memory representation. Participants first memorized two locations and after a retention interval selected one location for further maintenance. The results show that saccade trajectories deviated away from the ultimately remembered location. Furthermore, selection of the location from the memorized representation produced sustained oculomotor preparation to it. The results show that oculomotor system is very flexible and plays an active role for coding and maintaining information selected within internal memory representations.
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