title: Influence of foveal distractors on saccadic eye movements: a dead zone for the global effect.
abstract: Three experiments investigated the global effect with foveal distractors displayed in the same hemifield as more eccentric saccade targets. Distractors were x-letter strings of variable length and targets corresponded to the central letter of letter strings (e.g., 'xxxkxxx'). Results showed that only foveal distractors longer than four letters (about 1 degree) deviated the eyes in a center-of-gravity manner thus suggesting a dead zone for the global effect. Short distractors influenced the likelihood of small-amplitude saccades (less than about 1 degree) and the latency of longer saccades. The findings were interpreted based on the dissociation between fixation and saccadic neurons. Implications for eye movements in reading were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS, UMR 6146, Université de Provence, Centre St. Charles, Bâtiment 9, Case D, 3 Place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille Cedex 03, France. Francoise.Vitu-thibault@up.univ-mrs.fr
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vitu
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lancelin
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jean
authors.forename: Fernand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farioli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*