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The oculomotor salience of flicker, apparent motion and continuous motion in saccade trajectories

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of dynamic distractors on the time-course of oculomotor selection using saccade trajectory deviations. Participants were instructed to make a speeded eye movement (pro-saccade) to a target presented above or below the fixation point while an irrelevant distractor was presented. Four types of distractors were varied within participants: (1) static, (2) flicker, (3) rotating apparent motion and (4) continuous motion. The eccentricity of the distractor was varied between participants. The results showed that saccadic trajectories curved towards distractors presented near the vertical midline; no reliable deviation was found for distractors presented further away from the vertical midline. Differences between the flickering and rotating distractor were found when distractor eccentricity was small and these specific effects developed over time such that there was a clear differentiation between saccadic deviation based on apparent motion for long-latency saccades, but not short-latency saccades. The present results suggest that the influence on performance of apparent motion stimuli is relatively delayed and acts in a more sustained manner compared to the influence of salient static, flickering and continuous moving stimuli.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Madalina Dumbrava and Claudia Bonmassar for help with data collection. This work was supported by grant of the Italian Ministry for University and Research (PRIN 2008HETS3W) to F.P. This work has been realized also thanks to the support from the Provincia autonoma di Trento and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Palazzo Fedrigotti, Corso Bettini 31, 38068, Rovereto, TN, Italy

    Wieske van Zoest & Francesco Pavani

  2. Department of Medical Neurobiology, Faculty of Medicine, Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hadassah Ein-Kerem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Benedetta Heimler

  3. The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Research, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hadassah Ein-Kerem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Benedetta Heimler

  4. Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy

    Francesco Pavani

  5. Integrative, Multisensory, Perception, Action and Cognition Team (IMPACT), Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Lyon, France

    Francesco Pavani

Authors
  1. Wieske van Zoest
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  2. Benedetta Heimler
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  3. Francesco Pavani
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Correspondence to Wieske van Zoest.

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van Zoest, W., Heimler, B. & Pavani, F. The oculomotor salience of flicker, apparent motion and continuous motion in saccade trajectories. Exp Brain Res 235, 181–191 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4779-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4779-1

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