TY - JOUR A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - When do microsaccades follow spatial attention? N2 - Following up on an exchange about the relation between microsaccades and spatial attention (Horowitz, Fencsik, Fine, Yurgenson, & Wolfe, 2007; Horowitz, Fine, Fencsik, Yurgenson, & Wolfe, 2007; Laubrock, Engbert, Rolfs, & Kliegl, 2007), we examine the effects of selection criteria and response modality. We show that for Posner cuing with saccadic responses, microsaccades go with attention in at least 75% of cases (almost 90% if probability matching is assumed) when they are first (or only) microsaccades in the cue target interval and when they occur between 200 and 400 msec after the cue. The relation between spatial attention and the direction of microsaccades drops to chance level for unselected microsaccades collected during manual-response conditions. Analyses of data from four cross-modal cuing experiments demonstrate an above-chance, intermediate link for visual cues, but no systematic relation for auditory cues. Thus, the link between spatial attention and direction of microsaccades depends on the experimental condition and time of occurrence, but it can be very strong. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://app.psychonomic-journals.org/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.3.683 SN - 1943-3921 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Shortening and prolongation of saccade latencies following microsaccades N2 - When the eyes fixate at a point in a visual scene, small saccades rapidly shift the image on the retina. The effect of these microsaccades on the latency of subsequent large-scale saccades may be twofold. First, microsaccades are associated with an enhancement of visual perception. Their occurrence during saccade target perception could, thus, decrease saccade latencies. Second, microsaccades are likely to indicate activity in fixation-related oculomotor neurons. These represent competitors to saccade-related cells in the interplay of gaze holding and shifting. Consequently, an increase in saccade latencies would be expected after microsaccades. Here, we present evidence for both aspects of microsaccadic impact on saccade latency. In a delayed response task, participants made saccades to visible or memorized targets. First, microsaccade occurrence up to 50 ms before target disappearance correlated with 18 ms (or 8%) faster saccades to memorized targets. Second, if microsaccades occurred shortly (i.e., < 150 ms) before a saccade was required, mean saccadic reaction time in visual and memory trials was increased by about 40 ms (or 16%). Hence, microsaccades can have opposite consequences for saccade latencies, pointing at a differential role of these fixational eye movements in the preparation of saccade motor programs Y1 - 2006 UR - http://www.springerlink.com/content/y67j226367352u28/fulltext.html U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-005-0148-1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - Microsaccadic modulation of response times in spatial attention tasks Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www.springerlink.com/content/101575 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-008-0202-2 SN - 0340-0727 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Microsaccade-induced prolongation of saccadic latencies depends on microsaccade amplitude Y1 - 2008 UR - http://www.jemr.org/ SN - 1995-8692 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Engbert, Ralf A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Microsaccades are an index of covert attention : commentary on Horowitz, Fine, Fencsik, Yurgenson and Wolfe Y1 - 2007 UR - http://pss.sagepub.com/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01904.x SN - 0956-7976 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - Microsaccadic Modulation of Response Times in Spatial Attention Tasks N2 - Covert shifts of attention are usually reflected in RT differences between responses to valid and invalid cues in the Posner spatial attention task. Such inferences about covert shifts of attention do not control for microsaccades in the cue target interval. We analyzed the effects of microsaccade orientation on RTs in four conditions, crossing peripheral visual and auditory cues with peripheral visual and auditory discrimination targets. Reaction time was generally faster on trials without microsaccades in the cue-target interval. If microsaccades occurred, the target-location congruency of the last microsaccade in the cuetarget interval interacted in a complex way with cue validity. For valid visual cues, irrespective of whether the discrimination target was visual or auditory, target-congruent microsaccades delayed RT. For invalid cues, target-incongruent microsaccades facilitated RTs for visual target discrimination, but delayed RT for auditory target discrimination. No reliable effects on RT were associated with auditory cues or with the first microsaccade in the cue-target interval. We discuss theoretical implications on the relation about spatial attention and oculomotor processes. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - paper 249 Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-57098 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Rolfs, Martin A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Shortening and Prolongation of Saccade Latencies Following Microsaccades N2 - When the eyes fixate at a point in a visual scene, small saccades rapidly shift the image on the retina. The effect of these microsaccades on the latency of subsequent large-scale saccades may be twofold. First, microsaccades are associated with an enhancement of visual perception. Their occurrence during saccade target perception should, thus, decrease saccade latencies. On the other hand, microsaccades likely indicate activity in fixation-related oculomotor neurons. These represent competitors to saccade-related cells in the interplay of gaze holding and shifting. Consequently, an increase in saccade latencies after microsaccades would be expected. Here, we present evidence for both aspects of microsaccadic impact on saccade latency. In a delayed response task, participants made saccades to visible or memorized targets. First, microsaccade occurrence up to 50 ms before target disappearance correlated with 18 ms (or 8%) faster saccades to memorized targets. Second, if microsaccades occurred shortly (i.e., < 150 ms) before a saccade was required, saccadic reaction times in visual and memory trials were increased by about 40 ms (or 16%). Hence, microsaccades can have opposite consequences for saccade latencies, pointing at a differential role of these fixational eye movements in preparation of motor programs. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - paper 242 KW - Fixational eye movements KW - Memory-guided saccades KW - Visually-guided saccades Y1 - 2006 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-57012 ER -