A rightward saccade to an unexpected stimulus as a marker for lateralised visuospatial attention

The human brain is lateralised to the right for visuospatial attention, particularly when reorienting attention to unexpected stimuli. However, the developmental characteristics of lateralisation remain unclear. To address this question, we devised a saccade task applicable for both adults and children. To assess the utility of this system, we investigated the correlation between line bisection test performance and the saccade task for 54 healthy adult volunteers. Participants followed a visual target that jumped 10 times, alternating between two fixed positions across the midline with a constant pace. In both the rightward and leftward directions, saccadic reaction time (RT) to the target jump decreased and reached a plateau from the first to the tenth jumps. Furthermore, we obtained the time required for reorienting in the contralateral hemisphere using the corrected value of the first RT. We found that longer corrected RTs in the rightward saccade were associated with greater deviation to the left in the line bisection task. This correlation was not observed for leftward saccades. Thus, corrected RTs in rightward saccades reflected the strength of individual hemispheric lateralisation. In conclusion, the rightward saccade task provides a suitable marker for lateralised visuospatial attention, and for investigating the development of lateralisation.