Saccadic facilitation by modulation of microsaccades in natural backgrounds
- 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.
Author details: | Petra Sinn, Ralf EngbertORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-011-0107-9 |
ISSN: | 1943-3921 |
Title of parent work (English): | Attention, perception, & psychophysics : AP&P ; a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc. |
Publisher: | Springer |
Place of publishing: | New York |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2011 |
Publication year: | 2011 |
Release date: | 2017/03/26 |
Tag: | Background texture; Eye movements; Microsaccade; Saccade latency; Saccadic facilitation effect |
Volume: | 73 |
Issue: | 4 |
Number of pages: | 5 |
First page: | 1029 |
Last Page: | 1033 |
Funding institution: | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [EN 471/3-1, 868] |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Psychologie |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Institution name at the time of the publication: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Psychologie |
External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 595 |