title: Oculomotor interference of bimodal distractors.
abstract: When executing an eye movement to a target location, the presence of an irrelevant distracting stimulus can influence the saccade metrics and latency. The present study investigated the influence of distractors of different sensory modalities (i.e. auditory, visual and audiovisual) which were presented at various distances (i.e. close or remote) from a visual target. The interfering effects of a bimodal distractor were more pronounced in the spatial domain than in the temporal domain. The results indicate that the direction of interference depended on the spatial layout of the visual scene. The close bimodal distractor caused the saccade endpoint and saccade trajectory to deviate towards the distractor whereas the remote bimodal distractor caused a deviation away from the distractor. Furthermore, saccade averaging and trajectory deviation evoked by a bimodal distractor was larger compared to the effects evoked by a unimodal distractor. This indicates that a bimodal distractor evoked stronger spatial oculomotor competition compared to a unimodal distractor and that the direction of the interference depended on the distance between the target and the distractor. Together, these findings suggest that the oculomotor vector to irrelevant bimodal input is enhanced and that the interference by multisensory input is stronger compared to unisensory input.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands; Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences: Cognitive Psychology Section, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.heeman@vu.nl.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heeman
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands; University Medical Center, Department of Neurology, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience and Center of Excellence for Rehabilitation Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht and Rehabilitation Center De Hoogstraat, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tanja C W
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Nijboer
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Van der Stoep
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences: Cognitive Psychology Section, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Theeuwes
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van der Stigchel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Audiovisual distractor effects; Global effect; Oculomotor competition; Remote distractor effect; Saccade averaging