Effect of habitual reading direction on saccadic eye movements: A pilot study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Ophthalmology
• Psychology

Background:

• Cognitive processes significantly impact saccadic eye movements.
• Habitual reading direction influences visuospatial processing and attention.
• Limited research exists on reading direction's effect on saccades for simple stimuli.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how habitual reading direction affects horizontal prosaccade, antisaccade, and self-paced saccade behaviors.
• To test the hypothesis that saccades aligning with habitual reading direction have longer prosaccade latency and lower antisaccade error rates.

Main Methods:

• Recruited Chinese (left-to-right reading) and Arabic/Persian (right-to-left reading) participants.
• Assessed horizontal prosaccade, antisaccade, and self-paced saccade tasks with visual stimuli.
• Measured saccade latency and error rates in relation to habitual reading direction.

Main Results:

• Arabic and Persian participants exhibited shorter, directional prosaccade latency against their habitual reading direction for 5° stimuli.
• No significant effect of reading direction on antisaccade latency was observed.
• Chinese readers demonstrated shorter prosaccade latencies and higher antisaccade errors for stimuli on their habitual reading side compared to Arabic/Persian readers.

Conclusions:

• Habitual reading direction influences saccadic eye movement characteristics, particularly for simple visual stimuli.
• Differences in saccade performance suggest reading habits modulate visuospatial attention and eye movement control.
• This study provides foundational insights into the interplay between reading habits and eye movement behavior.