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Microsaccades and attention in a high-acuity visual alignment task.

Rakesh Nanjappa1,2,3, Robert M McPeek1,4

  • 1Graduate Center for Vision Research, Department of Biological and Visual Sciences, SUNY College of Optometry, New York, NY, USA.

Journal of Vision
|February 11, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

During fine-acuity tasks like aiming, tiny eye movements called microsaccades are suppressed before shooting. This suppression occurs even when gaze doesn't shift, suggesting cognitive control beyond spatial attention.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Visual Science

Background:

  • Microsaccades are small, rapid eye movements crucial for gaze shifting during visual tasks.
  • These eye movements are typically suppressed just before a trigger press in aiming tasks.
  • The reason for this suppression is debated: reduced need for gaze shifting or active suppression to maintain visual stability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of microsaccades during a simulated shooting task under normal and eccentric viewing conditions.
  • To determine if microsaccade suppression is linked to gaze shifting or cognitive processes.
  • To explore the influence of covert attention on microsaccade modulation during fine-acuity tasks.

Main Methods:

  • Participants performed a simulated shooting task under normal (free eye movement) and eccentric (fixed gaze at 5° eccentricity) conditions.
  • Microsaccade rates were recorded during task performance.
  • A Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task was used to monitor spatial attention shifts concurrently with the shooting task.

Main Results:

  • Microsaccade rate decreased near the end of the task in the normal viewing condition, as expected.
  • A similar decrease in microsaccade rate was observed in the eccentric condition, despite no gaze shifting between objects.
  • RSVP task performance indicated that spatial attention remained focused on the shooting task, not disengaging during the microsaccade drop.

Conclusions:

  • Microsaccade suppression before shooting is not solely dependent on the need to shift gaze.
  • The findings suggest that cognitive processes beyond spatial attention modulate microsaccades during demanding visual tasks.
  • Microsaccades may be actively controlled by cognitive factors to optimize performance in fine-acuity tasks.