TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sinn, Petra
A1  - Engbert, Ralf
T1  - Saccadic facilitation by modulation of microsaccades in natural backgrounds
JF  - Attention, perception, & psychophysics : AP&P ; a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.
N2  - Saccades move objects of interest into the center of the visual field for high-acuity visual analysis. White, Stritzke, and Gegenfurtner (Current Biology, 18, 124-128, 2008) have shown that saccadic latencies in the context of a structured background are much shorter than those with an unstructured background at equal levels of visibility. This effect has been explained by possible preactivation of the saccadic circuitry whenever a structured background acts as a mask for potential saccade targets. Here, we show that background textures modulate rates of microsaccades during visual fixation. First, after a display change, structured backgrounds induce a stronger decrease of microsaccade rates than do uniform backgrounds. Second, we demonstrate that the occurrence of a microsaccade in a critical time window can delay a subsequent saccadic response. Taken together, our findings suggest that microsaccades contribute to the saccadic facilitation effect, due to a modulation of microsaccade rates by properties of the background.
KW  - Eye movements
KW  - Microsaccade
KW  - Saccade latency
KW  - Background texture
KW  - Saccadic facilitation effect
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-011-0107-9
SN  - 1943-3921
VL  - 73
IS  - 4
SP  - 1029
EP  - 1033
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -