Effect of visual attention on the properties of optokinetic nystagmus.

Kei Kanari,Kiyomi Sakamoto,Hirohiko Kaneko,Markus Lappe

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0175453

Kei Kanari, Kiyomi Sakamoto + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175453

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Apr 7, 2017
Citations: 9	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Panasonic (Japan), Tokyo Institute of Technology

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) gain increases through attention to peripheral motion when the central visual field is occluded. However, how the properties of OKN change when two areas containing motion in different directions are presented in the peripheral visual field is still unclear. In this study, we investigated whether OKN corresponding to the attended motion in the periphery occurred while the observer was maintaining fixation at the center. We presented two areas with different directions of motion arranged on the left and right, top and bottom, or center and surrounding (concentric) areas in the display. Observers counted targets appearing on the attended area in the stimulus to maintain their attention on it. The results indicate that attention enhances the gain and frequency of OKN corresponding to the attended motion even in the case of stimuli having several areas with different directions of motion.

Highlights

To receive visual inputs appropriately, our eyes attempt to keep the image of an object at the same location on the retina using voluntary and involuntary eye movements
In Experiment 2, we investigated whether Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) corresponding to the attended motion in the periphery occurred even when stimulus moving to the opposite direction was presented in the central visual field, while manipulating the state of attention using an attentional task
In Experiment 1, when observers attended to the peripheral motion while fixating on a central line, OKN occurred at 0.25 Hz and the gain of OKN was 0.13 on average, and when they did not attend to the motion of the same stimulus, OKN occurred at 0.02 Hz and the gain of OKN was 0.01 on average

Summary

Introduction

To receive visual inputs appropriately, our eyes attempt to keep the image of an object at the same location on the retina using voluntary and involuntary eye movements. Smooth pursuit is a voluntary eye movement to keep the image of a moving object on the fovea up to a target velocity of about 60 deg/s. Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) is an involuntary eye movement and a rhythmic oscillation of the eye produced by a moving visual field [1]. It is generally known that the gain of OKN (the ratio of the slow phase velocity to stimulus velocity) decreases when there is a stationary object in the plane of the moving stimulus and greatly decreases if edges perpendicular to the direction of stimulus motion are presented [2]. Some studies have reported that OKN gain decreases when the central visual field is occluded [4,5,6,7] but one of the studies has shown that the rise in time of OKN gain was similar for the central and peripheral stimuli indicating that

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