The remote distractor effect in saccade programming: channel interactions and lateral inhibition

Abstract

We explored the dependency of the saccadic remote distractor effect (RDE) on the spatial frequency content of target and distractor Gabor patches. A robust RDE was obtained with low–medium spatial frequency distractors, regardless of the spatial frequency of the target. High spatial frequency distractors interfered to a similar extent when the target was of the same spatial frequency. We developed a quantitative model based on lateral inhibition within an oculomotor decision unit. This lateral inhibition mechanism cannot account for the interaction observed between target and distractor spatial frequency, pointing to the existence of channel interactions at an earlier level.