Modulation of time perception by eye movements

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Modulation of time perception by eye movements Cheng Xiaoqin1, 2 and Trevor B. Penney2, 3* 1 National University of Singapore, Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, Singapore 2 National University of Singapore, LSI Programme in Neurobiology and Aging, Singapore 3 National University of Singapore, Psychology, Singapore The perception of time is intricately linked to attention. Overt shifting of one’s attention involves foveating to the area of interest through ballistic eye movements known as saccades. However, the direction of gaze does not always indicate one’s attentional focus because attention shifts also occur covertly in the absence of saccades. Microsaccades are small eye movements that occur during eye fixations and underlie covert attention shifts (Engbert and Kliegl, 2003). In the present study, we investigated whether saccades and microsaccades impact interval timing. Participants were asked to memorise the duration of a six-second visual (Experiment 1) or auditory (Experiment 2) stimulus and to then reproduce that duration in subsequent test trials. In three of the four test conditions, the interval timing trials included a secondary cue discrimination task. Participants were required to foveate to stimuli appearing in the periphery (Saccade-Discrimination), maintain fixation in the center despite appearance of peripheral stimuli (No Saccade-Peripheral Discrimination), or maintain central fixation with stimuli appearing in the center (No Saccade-Central Discrimination). In the fourth condition, participants did not perform saccades or the discrimination task (No Saccade-No Discrimination). Using mixed effects modelling, we examined the relationship between saccade duration and reproduced duration in the Saccade-Discrimination condition and between microsaccade duration and reproduced duration in all No Saccade conditions. Saccade duration positively predicted reproduced duration in both experiments. In addition, microsaccade duration positively predicted reproduced duration for all No Saccade conditions in Experiment 2. However, this relationship was only found in the No Saccade-Central Discrimination and the No Saccade-No Discrimination condition for Experiment 1. Taken together, the results suggest a role of both saccades and microsaccades in visual attention and time perception. References Engbert, R., and Kliegl, R. (2003). Microsaccades uncover the orientation of covert attention. Vision Research, 43, 1035-1045. Keywords: Time Perception, microsaccades, Saccades, Time distortion, Eye Movements, Seconds range Conference: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Sydney, Australia, 2 Dec - 4 Dec, 2015. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Psychophysiology Citation: Xiaoqin C and Penney TB (2015). Modulation of time perception by eye movements. Conference Abstract: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.219.00049 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Oct 2015; Published Online: 30 Nov 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Trevor B Penney, National University of Singapore, LSI Programme in Neurobiology and Aging, Singapore, Singapore, penney@cuhk.edu.hk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Cheng Xiaoqin Trevor B Penney Google Cheng Xiaoqin Trevor B Penney Google Scholar Cheng Xiaoqin Trevor B Penney PubMed Cheng Xiaoqin Trevor B Penney Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.