title: Saccadic facilitation by modulation of microsaccades in natural backgrounds.
abstract: Saccades move objects of interest into the center of the visual field for high-acuity visual analysis. White, Stritzke, and Gegenfurtner (Current Biology, 18, 124-128, 2008) have shown that saccadic latencies in the context of a structured background are much shorter than those with an unstructured background at equal levels of visibility. This effect has been explained by possible preactivation of the saccadic circuitry whenever a structured background acts as a mask for potential saccade targets. Here, we show that background textures modulate rates of microsaccades during visual fixation. First, after a display change, structured backgrounds induce a stronger decrease of microsaccade rates than do uniform backgrounds. Second, we demonstrate that the occurrence of a microsaccade in a critical time window can delay a subsequent saccadic response. Taken together, our findings suggest that microsaccades contribute to the saccadic facilitation effect, due to a modulation of microsaccade rates by properties of the background.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24-25, Potsdam OT Golm, Germany.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sinn
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Engbert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012438:Saccades; D013028:Space Perception; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014794:Visual Fields; D055815:Young Adult