Time-series changes in pupil and optokinetic nystagmus in spatial attention shift

Abstract

Changes in the pupil and optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) correspond not only to the luminance and motion direction at the eye position but also to those at the attentional position, respectively. This study examined changes in the spatial shift of covert attention in the pupil and OKN. A test stimulus with random dot patterns of different luminance and direction of motion was presented at a distance to the left and right of the visual field. The results showed that when attention was spatially shifted, changes in the pupil and OKN corresponded to the luminance and motion direction of the attentional stimulus, respectively. This finding suggests that the pupil and OKN can be used to estimate changes in covert attention.