Abstract
Orienting attention to visual objects inside working memory can trigger overt orienting behaviour of the eyes and head, in the form of directional biases in microsaccades and head orientation. This suggests that brain circuits that control where we look in the world may also control where we “look” inside the mind. At the same time, such overt orienting behaviour may reflect an automatic tendency to engage in action at locations in the world where relevant information exists – or has been memorised. If so, internal orienting of attention may trigger a more widespread “orienting response” that encompasses behavioural biases beyond gaze. Taking this as our starting point, we investigated whether internal focusing of attention within the spatial layout of visual working memory would also affect ongoing hand movements – as studied using mouse-cursor tracking. Participants held two visual items (coloured oriented bars) in working memory and were cued to select either item for later reproduction report by means of a central colour cue. Critically, the cue occurred while participants dragged a mouse cursor from the bottom to the top of the screen using their right hand. Analyses of mouse-cursor paths revealed a subtle but reliable bias in mouse-cursor control in the direction of the memorised location (left or right) of the to-be-attended working-memory item, despite there being no incentive for such behaviour. This shows that orienting attention inside visual working memory engages neural circuits beyond gaze control, even affecting ongoing hand-movement control. This reinforces the perspective that brain circuits that control visual working memory and that control action are fundamentally interdependent.