Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 25, 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
How Eye Dominance Strength Modulates the Influence of a Distractor on Saccade Accuracy
Jérôme Tagu1, Karine Doré-Mazars1, Christelle Lemoine-Lardennois1
1Laboratoire Vision Action Cognition, EA n°7326, Institut de Psychologie, Institut Universitaire Paris Descartes de Psychologie, Institut de Neurosciences et Cognition, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
Purpose:
Neuroimaging studies have shown that the dominant eye is linked preferentially to the ipsilateral primary visual cortex. However, its role in perception still is misunderstood. We examined the influence of eye dominance and eye dominance strength on saccadic parameters, contrasting stimulations presented in the two hemifields.
Methods:
Participants with contrasted eye dominance (left or right) and eye dominance strength (strong or weak) were asked to make a saccade toward a target displayed at 5° or 7° left or right of a fixation cross. In some trials, a distractor at 3° of eccentricity also was displayed either in the same hemifield as the target (to induce a global effect on saccade amplitude) or in the opposite hemifield (to induce a remote distractor effect on saccade latency).
Results:
Eye dominance did influence saccade amplitude as participants with strong eye dominance showed more accurate saccades toward the target (weaker global effect) in the hemifield contralateral to the dominant eye than in the ipsilateral one. Such asymmetry was not found in participants with weak eye dominance or when a remote distractor was used.
Conclusions:
We show that eye dominance strength influences saccade target selection. We discuss several arguments supporting the view that such advantage may be linked to the relationship between the dominant eye and ipsilateral hemisphere. French Abstract.
