Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Visual System01:26

Visual System

2.3K
Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
2.3K
Vision01:24

Vision

61.5K
Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.
61.5K
Working Memory01:24

Working Memory

1.2K
Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this...
1.2K
Association Areas of the Cortex01:21

Association Areas of the Cortex

10.5K
Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...
10.5K
Anatomy of the Eyeball01:20

Anatomy of the Eyeball

11.7K
The eye is a spherical, hollow structure composed of three tissue layers. The outer layer — the fibrous tunic, comprises the sclera — a white structure — and the cornea, which is transparent. The sclera encompasses some of the ocular surface, most of which is not visible. However, the 'white of the eye' is distinctively visible in humans compared to other species. The cornea, a clear covering at the front of the eye, enables light penetration. The eye's middle...
11.7K
Visual Agnosia01:12

Visual Agnosia

1.7K
Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round...
1.7K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Transcranial magnetic stimulation to frontal cortex, unlike occipital stimulation, does not disrupt exogenous attention.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Live Spike Sorting of Large-scale Neural Recordings.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Eye-Tracking-BIDS: the Brain Imaging Data Structure extended to gaze position and pupil data.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same author

Saccade direction modulates the temporal dynamics of presaccadic attention.

Journal of vision·2025
Same author

Robust encoding of stimulus-response mapping by neurons in visual cortex.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025
Same author

Intermittent rate coding and cue-specific ensembles support working memory.

Nature·2024

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 30, 2026

Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice
09:28

Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice

Published on: June 23, 2023

4.0K

Oculomotor selection underlies feature retention in visual working memory.

Nina M Hanning1, Donatas Jonikaitis2, Heiner Deubel2

  • 1Allgemeine und Experimentelle Psychologie, Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany; and Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Department Biologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany hanning.nina@gmail.com.

Journal of Neurophysiology
|November 20, 2015
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Oculomotor selection, but not task relevance, enhances visual working memory (WM). This suggests distinct neural pathways for saccade target selection and task-relevant location processing in WM.

Keywords:
saccadetask relevancevisual featureworking memory

More Related Videos

VisualEyes: A Modular Software System for Oculomotor Experimentation
10:41

VisualEyes: A Modular Software System for Oculomotor Experimentation

Published on: March 25, 2011

13.4K
Author Spotlight: Exploring the Link Between Time Perception of Visual Stimuli and Reading Skills
09:27

Author Spotlight: Exploring the Link Between Time Perception of Visual Stimuli and Reading Skills

Published on: January 19, 2024

1.9K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 30, 2026

Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice
09:28

Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice

Published on: June 23, 2023

4.0K
VisualEyes: A Modular Software System for Oculomotor Experimentation
10:41

VisualEyes: A Modular Software System for Oculomotor Experimentation

Published on: March 25, 2011

13.4K
Author Spotlight: Exploring the Link Between Time Perception of Visual Stimuli and Reading Skills
09:27

Author Spotlight: Exploring the Link Between Time Perception of Visual Stimuli and Reading Skills

Published on: January 19, 2024

1.9K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Neuroscience
  • Experimental Psychology

Background:

  • Oculomotor selection, spatial task relevance, and visual working memory (WM) are interconnected cognitive processes.
  • Previous research has not distinguished between oculomotor selection and spatial task relevance due to overlapping neural substrates and experimental paradigms.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To dissociate the contributions of task relevance, oculomotor selection, and oculomotor execution to feature representation maintenance in WM.
  • To investigate the distinct roles of oculomotor selection and spatial task relevance in visual working memory.

Main Methods:

  • Designed a novel experiment in humans to separate oculomotor selection from spatial task relevance.
  • Employed tasks where object locations were either saccade targets, prepared but unexecuted saccade targets, or task-relevant locations to avoid.

Main Results:

  • Feature representations in WM were maintained when locations were saccade targets or prepared saccade targets.
  • No WM benefit was observed for feature representations at task-relevant, but non-saccade target, locations.
  • Demonstrated dissociable effects of task relevance and oculomotor selection on WM feature maintenance.

Conclusions:

  • Oculomotor selection consistently benefits visual working memory, unlike spatial task relevance.
  • Provides evidence for overlapping neural circuitry between saccade target selection and feature-based WM.
  • Suggests WM processes can be dissociated from those encoding merely task-relevant locations.