scholarly journals Associations and Dissociations between Oculomotor Readiness and Covert Attention

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soazig Casteau ◽  
Daniel T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Exogenous Orienting ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Endogenous Orienting ◽  
Covert Orienting ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
Premotor Theory

The idea that covert mental processes such as spatial attention are fundamentally dependent on systems that control overt movements of the eyes has had a profound influence on theoretical models of spatial attention. However, theories such as Klein’s Oculomotor Readiness Hypothesis (OMRH) and Rizzolatti’s Premotor Theory have not gone unchallenged. We previously argued that although OMRH/Premotor theory is inadequate to explain pre-saccadic attention and endogenous covert orienting, it may still be tenable as a theory of exogenous covert orienting. In this article we briefly reiterate the key lines of argument for and against OMRH/Premotor theory, then evaluate the Oculomotor Readiness account of Exogenous Orienting (OREO) with respect to more recent empirical data. These studies broadly confirm the importance of oculomotor preparation for covert, exogenous attention. We explain this relationship in terms of reciprocal links between parietal ‘priority maps’ and the midbrain oculomotor centres that translate priority-related activation into potential saccade endpoints. We conclude that the OMRH/Premotor theory hypothesis is false for covert, endogenous orienting but remains tenable as an explanation for covert, exogenous orienting.

Spatial Covert Attention

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Carrasco
Keyword(s):  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Selective Process

This review focuses on how covert attention modulates perception. It explains why attention is considered a selective process, the constructs of covert attention, and spatial endogenous and exogenous attention. This review includes the effects of spatial attention on discriminability and appearance in tasks mediated by contrast sensitivity and spatial resolution.

scholarly journals Predictivity and Manifestation Factors in Aging Effects on the Orienting of Spatial Attention

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 1863-1872
Author(s):  
Alon Zivony ◽  
Hadas Erel ◽  
Daniel A Levy
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Exogenous Orienting ◽  
Aging Effects ◽  
Endogenous Orienting ◽  
External Cues ◽  
Symbolic Cues

Abstract Objective Prior attention research has asserted that endogenous orienting of spatial attention by willful focusing may be differently influenced by aging than exogenous orienting, the capture of attention by external cues. However, most such studies confound factors of manifestation (locational vs symbolic cues) and the predictivity of cues. We therefore investigated whether age effects on orienting are mediated by those factors. Method We measured accuracy and response times of groups of younger and older adults in a discrimination task with flanker distracters, under three spatial cueing conditions: nonpredictive locational cues, predictive symbolic cues, and a hybrid predictive locational condition. Results Age differences were found to be related to the factor of cue predictivity, but not to the factor of spatial manifestation. These differences were not modulated by flanker congruency. Discussion The results indicate that the orienting of spatial attention in healthy aging may be adversely affected by less effective perception or utilization of the predictive value of cues, but not by the requirement to voluntarily execute a shift of attention.

scholarly journals Microsaccades and attention in a high-acuity visual alignment task

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Nanjappa ◽  
Robert M. McPeek
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Small Region ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Letter Detection ◽  
Fixed Target ◽  
Viewing Condition ◽  
Alignment Task ◽  
High Acuity ◽  
Subsequent Effect

ABSTRACTWhile aiming and shooting, we make tiny eye movements called microsaccades that shift gaze between task-relevant objects within a small region. However, in the brief period before pressing trigger, microsaccades are suppressed. This might be due to the lack of the requirement to shift gaze as the retinal images of the two objects start overlapping on fovea. Or we might be actively suppressing microsaccades to prevent any disturbances in visual perception caused by microsaccades around the time of their occurrence and their subsequent effect on shooting performance.In this study we looked at microsaccade rate while participants performed a simulated shooting task under two conditions: normal viewing in which they moved their eyes freely and eccentric condition in which they maintained gaze on a fixed target while performing shooting task at 5° eccentricity. As expected, microsaccade rate dropped at the end of the task in the normal viewing condition. However, we found the same for the eccentric condition in which microsaccade did not shift gaze between the task objects.Microsaccades are also produced in response to shifts in covert attention. To test whether disengagement of covert attention from eccentric shooting location caused the drop in microsaccade rate, we monitored participant’s spatial attention location by employing a RSVP task simultaneously at a location opposite to the shooting task. Target letter detection at RSVP location did not improve during the drop in microsaccade rate, suggesting that covert attention was maintained at the shooting task location.We conclude that in addition to their usual gaze-shifting function, microsaccades during fine acuity tasks might be modulated by cognitive processes other than spatial attention.

Expectancy modulates pupil size both during endogenous orienting and during re‐orienting of spatial attention: A study with isoluminant stimuli

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 2893-2904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Lasaponara ◽  
Gianfranco Fortunato ◽  
Alessio Dragone ◽  
Michele Pellegrino ◽  
Fabio Marson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Endogenous Orienting

scholarly journals Asymmetrical Pseudo-Extinction Phenomenon in the Illusory Line Motion

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1322
Author(s):  
Vidheya G. Del Vicario ◽  
Rossana Actis-Grosso ◽  
Nadia Bolognini ◽  
Roberta Daini
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
White Line ◽  
Illusory Line Motion ◽  
Perceptual Asymmetry ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Asymmetrical Effect

Illusory Line Motion (i.e., a static line, presented after a lateral cue, is perceived as movement in the opposite direction to the cue) has been used to study a phenomenon of perceptual asymmetry. We have demonstrated the presence of an illusion of leftward movement, even in the presence of bilateral symmetrical cues. We have classified this phenomenon as one of pseudo-extinction. The paradigm of the four experiments performed was always the same: a white line, briefly presented alone or preceded by one or two lateral cues (150 ms), was judged by a group of young participants to be moving either to one side or the other. The asymmetrical effect in the bilateral cue condition was observed with horizontal lines (Experiment 1 and 4), and not with vertical or oblique (Experiment 2 and 3). These results suggest that the effect is linked to the asymmetry of the horizontal spatial planum and the mechanisms of spatial attention. Experiment 4 verified whether the Illusory Line Motion involves the collicular pathway by using blue stimuli for the cues, which activate less the Superior Colliculus (SC), with negative results. We interpreted the asymmetrical pseudo-extinction phenomenon in terms of a right-space exogenous attention advantage.

scholarly journals Sustained spatial attention accounts for the direction bias of human microsaccades

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Xue ◽  
Antonino Calapai ◽  
Julius Krumbiegel ◽  
Stefan Treue
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Peripheral Stimulus ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Attention Tasks ◽  
Direction Effect

AbstractSmall ballistic eye movements, so called microsaccades, occur even while foveating an object. Previous studies using covert attention tasks have shown that shortly after a symbolic spatial cue, specifying a behaviorally relevant location, microsaccades tend to be directed toward the cued location. This suggests that microsaccades can serve as an index for the covert orientation of spatial attention. However, this hypothesis faces two major challenges: First, effects associated with visual spatial attention are hard to distinguish from those that associated with the contemplation of foveating a peripheral stimulus. Second, it is less clear whether endogenously sustained attention alone can bias microsaccade directions without a spatial cue on each trial. To address the first issue, we investigated the direction of microsaccades in human subjects while they attended to a behaviorally relevant location and prepared a response eye movement either toward or away from this location. We find that directions of microsaccades are biased toward the attended location rather than towards the saccade target. To tackle the second issue, we verbally indicated the location to attend before the start of each block of trials, to exclude potential visual cue-specific effects on microsaccades. Our results indicate that sustained spatial attention alone reliably produces the microsaccade direction effect. Overall, our findings demonstrate that sustained spatial attention alone, even in the absence of saccade planning or a spatial cue, is sufficient to explain the direction bias observed in microsaccades.

scholarly journals The effect of offset cues on saccade programming and covert attention

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel T Smith ◽  
Soazig Casteau
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Motor Preparation ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Covert Orienting ◽  
Cueing Task ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Saccade Programming ◽  
Saccadic Reaction Times ◽  
Saccade Preparation

Salient peripheral events trigger fast, “exogenous” covert orienting. The influential premotor theory of attention argues that covert orienting of attention depends upon planned but unexecuted eye-movements. One problem with this theory is that salient peripheral events, such as offsets, appear to summon attention when used to measure covert attention (e.g., the Posner cueing task) but appear not to elicit oculomotor preparation in tasks that require overt orienting (e.g., the remote distractor paradigm). Here, we examined the effects of peripheral offsets on covert attention and saccade preparation. Experiment 1 suggested that transient offsets summoned attention in a manual detection task without triggering motor preparation planning in a saccadic localisation task, although there were a high proportion of saccadic capture errors on “no-target” trials, where a cue was presented but no target appeared. In Experiment 2, “no-target” trials were removed. Here, transient offsets produced both attentional facilitation and faster saccadic responses on valid cue trials. A third experiment showed that the permanent disappearance of an object also elicited attentional facilitation and faster saccadic reaction times. These experiments demonstrate that offsets trigger both saccade programming and covert attentional orienting, consistent with the idea that exogenous, covert orienting is tightly coupled with oculomotor activation. The finding that no-go trials attenuates oculomotor priming effects offers a way to reconcile the current findings with previous claims of a dissociation between covert attention and oculomotor control in paradigms that utilise a high proportion of catch trials.

Interactions between Voluntary and Stimulus-driven Spatial Attention Mechanisms across Sensory Modalities

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2384-2397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Santangelo ◽  
Marta Olivetti Belardinelli ◽  
Charles Spence ◽  
Emiliano Macaluso
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Auditory Stimulus ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
Task Irrelevant

In everyday life, the allocation of spatial attention typically entails the interplay between voluntary (endogenous) and stimulus-driven (exogenous) attention. Furthermore, stimuli in different sensory modalities can jointly influence the direction of spatial attention, due to the existence of cross-sensory links in attentional control. Using fMRI, we examined the physiological basis of these interactions. We induced exogenous shifts of auditory spatial attention while participants engaged in an endogenous visuospatial cueing task. Participants discriminated visual targets in the left or right hemifield. A central visual cue preceded the visual targets, predicting the target location on 75% of the trials (endogenous visual attention). In the interval between the endogenous cue and the visual target, task-irrelevant nonpredictive auditory stimuli were briefly presented either in the left or right hemifield (exogenous auditory attention). Consistent with previous unisensory visual studies, activation of the ventral fronto-parietal attentional network was observed when the visual targets were presented at the uncued side (endogenous invalid trials, requiring visuospatial reorienting), as compared with validly cued targets. Critically, we found that the side of the task-irrelevant auditory stimulus modulated these activations, reducing spatial reorienting effects when the auditory stimulus was presented on the same side as the upcoming (invalid) visual target. These results demonstrate that multisensory mechanisms of attentional control can integrate endogenous and exogenous spatial information, jointly determining attentional orienting toward the most relevant spatial location.

Covert orienting to the locations of targets and distractors: Effects on response channel activation in a flanker task

2002 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 917-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Ro ◽  
Liana Machado ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher ◽  
Robert D. Rafal
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Channel Activation ◽  
Covert Orienting ◽  
Exogenous Cues ◽  
Colour Patch ◽  
Target Locations ◽  
Response Channel ◽  
Flanker Interference

The role of covert orienting of attention in response channel activation was examined using the flanker interference and precueing paradigms. Four experiments assessed the influence of distractors on the discrimination of a target colour patch under cueing conditions (three with non-informative, exogenous cues and one with informative, endogenous cues) that modulated attention at the flanker or target locations. Across all of the experiments, the amount of interference generated by the distractors was not modulated by the facilitation and inhibition of return induced by spatial attention precues. These results are consistent with previous reports of patients with neglect, which demonstrated that flanker interference proceeds at unattended locations (Audet, Bub, & Lecours, 1991; Cohen, Ivry, Rafal, & Kohn, 1995), and they suggest that response channel activation can occur independently from spatial attention.

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