Abstract
The premotor theory of attention suggests that spatial attention is deployed at the saccade target, just before saccade onset. In this study, we use a peri-saccadic cue to exogenously direct attention to other locations. A brief stimulus, presented during the saccade, is also perceived closer to the saccade target than it actually is - a phenomenon called "saccadic compression". This unique situation enables studying the coordinate frame in which priming occurs: does the cue enhance performance at the real (screen) position of a stimulus, in its retinal position, or in its perceived position? Our goal was to exogenously orient spatial attention during a saccade, using a Posner cue, to a position other than the saccade target. We assessed the advantage conferred by the cue in a post-saccadic discrimination task. To that end, we briefly presented a priming cue (for 12 ms) during a saccade. 120 ms later, a Vernier target randomly appeared at one of six different positions: the screen position of the cue; its misperceived position; the cue position in retinal coordinates; and the three homologous, equidistant, "non-cue" (control) locations. The cue carried no information about the future position of the Vernier target. Nevertheless, significant priming effects (p< 0.006) were found in both the real and the perceived location of the cue. Our results suggest that peri-saccadic deployment of spatial attention can be directed to locations other than the saccade target. Interestingly, the cueing effects were most prevalent in the real or perceived cue position. Attention was therefore sustained at the cue's location in the world (or its perceived location) despite the change of retinal position. This is likely to be a consequence of a physiological remapping process - predictive activation of visual neurons when an attended stimulus will fall in their future receptive field after completion of the saccade.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2018