Presaccadic attention improves or impairs performance by enhancing sensitivity to higher spatial frequencies

Abstract

Right before we move our eyes, visual performance and neural responses for the saccade target are enhanced. This effect, presaccadic attention, is considered to prioritize the saccade target and to enhance behavioral performance for the saccade target. Recent evidence has shown that presaccadic attention modulates the processing of feature information. Hitherto, it remains unknown whether presaccadic modulations on feature information are flexible, to improve performance for the task at hand, or automatic, so that they alter the featural representation similarly regardless of the task. Using a masking procedure, here we report that presaccadic attention can either improve or impair performance depending on the spatial frequency content of the visual input. These counterintuitive modulations were significant at a time window right before saccade onset. Furthermore, merely deploying covert attention within the same temporal interval without preparing a saccade did not affect performance. This study reveals that presaccadic attention not only prioritizes the saccade target, but also automatically modifies its featural representation.

Intra-saccadic motion streaks as cues to linking object locations across saccades

“…One interesting exception was the result that high SFs were more reliably identified during saccades than during fixation when the blanking period was introduced in Experiment 2. We speculate that this result is a consequence of well-established effects: During the preparation of a saccade, visuospatial attention selected the target of the movement Kowler, Anderson, Dosher, & Blaser, 1995;Ohl et al, 2017;Rolfs & Carrasco, 2012), increasing visual sensitivity for high SFs in an obligatory fashion (Li et al, 2016;Li, Pan, & Carrasco, 2019). In the context of our task, this increase in sensitivity at the saccade target could have led to two complementary phenomena.…”

“…Yet, these jerky displacements are not part of our perceptual experience—the visual world is stable. Whereas this phenomenon has received attention for centuries and has inspired research and theory to this date ( Binda & Morrone, 2018 ; Burr & Morrone, 2011 ; Cavanagh, Hunt, Afraz, & Rolfs, 2010 ; Hall & Colby, 2011 ; Higgins & Rayner, 2015 ; Marino & Mazer, 2016 ; Wurtz, 2018 ; Ziesche & Hamker, 2014 ), a fundamental question remains unanswered: How does the visual system keep track of an object that is changing locations on the retina as the eyes move ( Rolfs, 2015 ; Wurtz, 2008 )? That is, how do we determine a correspondence between two successive views of an object across a saccade?…”

The spatial and temporal properties of attentional selectivity for saccades and reaches

“…Previous studies using a neutral or invalid-cued baseline (Hanning et al, 2018; Jonikaitis & Deubel, 2011; Rolfs & Carrasco, 2012; Rolfs et al, 2013; White et al, 2013) have all showed enhancement relative to an invalid or neutral baseline. Recent studies have shown a saccade-related modulation at the target or on the surface containing the target that did not occur with mere covert attention (Ghahghaei & Verghese, 2017; Li, Barbot, & Carrasco, 2016; Li, Pan, & Carrasco, 2019). In contrast, Khan et al (2015) showed no saccade-related change at the target location relative to covert attention, although they found a saccade-related decline in sensitivity at distractor locations.…”

How exogenous spatial attention affects visual representation

“…Recent studies have shown that presaccadic attention enhances the gain and reduces the width of the orientation tuning for the saccade target (Li, Barbot, & Carrasco, 2016; Ohl, Kuper, & Rolfs, 2017). Moreover, it increases the gain to high SFs at the saccade landing position (Li et al, 2016), even when doing so is detrimental for the task (Li, Pan, & Carrasco, 2019). Given that presaccadic attention is deployed voluntarily in response to a central cue, it has been compared to endogenous attention (Li et al, 2016; Li, Pan, & Carrasco, 2019; Rolfs & Carrasco, 2012).…”