title: Dynamics of attentional deployment during saccadic programming.
abstract: The dynamics of attentional deployment before saccade execution was studied with a dual-task paradigm. Observers made a horizontal saccade whose direction was indicated by a symbolic precue and had to discriminate the orientation of a Gabor patch displayed at different delays after the precue (but before saccade onset). The patch location relative to the saccadic target was indicated to observers before each block. Therefore, on each trial, observers were informed simultaneously about the respective absolute locations of the saccadic and perceptual targets. The main result is that orientational acuity improved over a period of 150-200 ms after the precue onset at the saccadic target location, where overall performance is best, and at distant locations. This effect is due to attentional factors rather than to an alerting effect. It is also dependent on the efficiency of the temporal masks displayed before and after the Gabor patches.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives de la Méditerranée, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France. Eric.Castet@incm.cnrs-mrs.fr
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Castet
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeanjean
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Montagnini
authors.forename: Danièle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Laugier
authors.forename: Guillaume S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Masson
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014792:Visual Acuity