Abstract
Vertebrates developed sophisticated solutions to select environmental visual information, being capable of moving attention without moving the eyes. A large body of behavioral and neuroimaging studies indicate a tight coupling between eye movements and spatial attention. The nature of this link, however, remains highly debated. Here, we demonstrate that deployment of human covert attention, measured in stationary eye conditions, can be boosted across space by changing the size of ocular saccades to a single position via a specific adaptation paradigm. These findings indicate that spatial attention is more widely affected by oculomotor plasticity than previously thought.
Highlights
Evolution has provided vertebrates with advanced systems allowing attention to be directed elsewhere from where the eyes look (Posner, 1980)
Scholars have found that the enhancement of visual perception typically occurring at the landing position of an upcoming saccade—called pre-saccadic shift of attention—follows the new metrics of eye movement induced by adaptation (Doré-mazars and Collins, 2005; Collins and Doré-Mazars, 2006; Collins et al, 2010; Khan et al, 2010)
Post hoc least significant difference (LSD) tests indicated a significant decrease of saccadic gain in the post- relative to the pre-phase in the exposed hemi-field for both groups
Summary
Evolution has provided vertebrates with advanced systems allowing attention to be directed elsewhere from where the eyes look (Posner, 1980). We select visual information via overt movements of the eyes (saccades) and covert shifts of attention (without saccades). A successful tool to qualify this coupling consists in testing visual detection or discrimination abilities—as proxies for attention deployment—after temporary modification of eye movements’ size through saccadic adaptation. Scholars have found that the enhancement of visual perception typically occurring at the landing position of an upcoming saccade—called pre-saccadic shift of attention—follows the new metrics of eye movement induced by adaptation (Doré-mazars and Collins, 2005; Collins and Doré-Mazars, 2006; Collins et al, 2010; Khan et al, 2010). The discovery that brain lesion can selectively disrupt the ability to orient covert attention without compromising the pre-saccadic shift of attention (Blangero et al, 2010), casts serious doubts on their supposedly intimate relationship (Smith and Schenk, 2012).
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