TY - GEN A1 - Valsecchi, Matteo A1 - Dimigen, Olaf A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold A1 - Sommer, Werner A1 - Turatto, Massimo T1 - Microsaccadic Inhibition and P300 Enhancement in a Visual Oddball Task N2 - It has recently been demonstrated that the presentation of a rare target in a visual oddball paradigm induces a prolonged inhibition of microsaccades. In the field of electrophysiology, the amplitude of the P300 component in event-related potentials (ERP) has been shown to be sensitive to the stimulus category (target vs. non target) of the eliciting stimulus, its overall probability, and the preceding stimulus sequence. In the present study we further specify the functional underpinnings of the prolonged microsaccadic inhibition in the visual oddball task, showing that the stimulus category, the frequency of a stimulus and the preceding stimulus sequence influence microsaccade rate. Furthermore, by co-recording ERPs and eye-movements, we were able to demonstrate that, despite being largely sensitive to the same experimental manipulation, the amplitude of P300 and the microsaccadic inhibition predict each other very weakly, and thus constitute two independent measures of the brain’s response to rare targets in the visual oddball paradigm. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - paper 256 KW - Visual Oddball Paradigm KW - Microsaccades KW - Microsaccadic Inhibition KW - ERPs KW - P300Psychophysiology KW - 46 (3) 2009 KW - S. 635-644 Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-57170 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sinn, Petra A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - Small saccades versus microsaccades: Experimental distinction and model-based unification JF - Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision. N2 - Natural vision is characterized by alternating sequences of rapid gaze shifts (saccades) and fixations. During fixations, microsaccades and slower drift movements occur spontaneously, so that the eye is never motionless. Theoretical models of fixational eye movements predict that microsaccades are dynamically coupled to slower drift movements generated immediately before microsaccades, which might be used as a criterion to distinguish microsaccades from small voluntary saccades. Here we investigate a sequential scanning task, where participants generate goal-directed saccades and microsaccades with overlapping amplitude distributions. We show that properties of microsaccades are correlated with precursory drift motion, while amplitudes of goal-directed saccades do not dependent on previous drift epochs. We develop and test a mathematical model that integrates goal-directed and fixational eye movements, including microsaccades. Using model simulations, we reproduce the experimental finding of correlations within fixational eye movement components (i.e., between physiological drift and microsaccades) but not between goal-directed saccades and fixational drift motion. These results lend support to a functional difference between microsaccades and goal-directed saccades, while, at the same time, both types of behavior may be part of an oculomotor continuum that is quantitatively described by our mathematical model. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Eye movements KW - Visual fixation KW - Microsaccades KW - Mathematical model Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2015.05.012 SN - 0042-6989 SN - 1878-5646 VL - 118 SP - 132 EP - 143 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - GEN A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Engbert, Ralf A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Crossmodal coupling of oculomotor controland spatial attention in vision and audition N2 - Fixational eye movements occur involuntarily during visual fixation of stationary scenes. The fastest components of these miniature eye movements are microsaccades, which can be observed about once per second. Recent studies demonstrated that microsaccades are linked to covert shifts of visual attention [e.g., Engbert & Kliegl (2003), Vision Res 43:1035-1045]. Here,we generalized this finding in two ways. First, we used peripheral cues, rather than the centrally presented cues of earlier studies. Second, we spatially cued attention in vision and audition to visual and auditory targets. An analysis of microsaccade responses revealed an equivalent impact of visual and auditory cues on microsaccade-rate signature (i.e., an initial inhibition followed by an overshoot and a final return to the pre-cue baseline rate). With visual cues or visual targets,microsaccades were briefly aligned with cue direction and then opposite to cue direction during the overshoot epoch, probably as a result of an inhibition of an automatic saccade to the peripheral cue. With left auditory cues and auditory targets microsaccades oriented in cue direction. Thus, microsaccades can be used to study crossmodal integration of sensory information and to map the time course of saccade preparation during covert shifts of visual and auditory attention. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - paper 234 KW - Microsaccades KW - Covert orienting KW - Fixational eye movements KW - Multisensory Y1 - 2005 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-56804 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lange, Elke B. A1 - Zweck, Fabian A1 - Sinn, Petra T1 - Microsaccade-rate indicates absorption by music listening JF - Consciousness and cognition N2 - The power of music is a literary topos, which can be attributed to intense and personally significant experiences, one of them being the state of absorption. Such phenomenal states are difficult to grasp objectively. We investigated the state of musical absorption by using eye tracking. We utilized a load related definition of state absorption: multimodal resources are committed to create a unified representation of music. Resource allocation was measured indirectly by microsaccade rate, known to indicate cognitive processing load. We showed in Exp. 1 that microsaccade rate also indicates state absorption. Hence, there is cross-modal coupling between an auditory aesthetic experience and fixational eye movements. When removing the fixational stimulus in Exp. 2, saccades are no longer generated upon visual input and the cross modal coupling disappeared. Results are interpreted in favor of the load hypothesis of micro saccade rate and against the assumption of general slowing by state absorption. KW - Microsaccades KW - Fixational eye movements KW - Absorption KW - Music KW - Aesthetics Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.07.009 SN - 1053-8100 SN - 1090-2376 VL - 55 SP - 59 EP - 78 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER -