title: Differential Contribution of Low- and High-level Image Content to Eye Movements in Monkeys and Humans.
abstract: Oculomotor selection exerts a fundamental impact on our experience of the environment. To better understand the underlying principles, researchers typically rely on behavioral data from humans, and electrophysiological recordings in macaque monkeys. This approach rests on the assumption that the same selection processes are at play in both species. To test this assumption, we compared the viewing behavior of 106 humans and 11 macaques in an unconstrained free-viewing task. Our data-driven clustering analyses revealed distinct human and macaque clusters, indicating species-specific selection strategies. Yet, cross-species predictions were found to be above chance, indicating some level of shared behavior. Analyses relying on computational models of visual saliency indicate that such cross-species commonalities in free viewing are largely due to similar low-level selection mechanisms, with only a small contribution by shared higher level selection mechanisms and with consistent viewing behavior of monkeys being a subset of the consistent viewing behavior of humans.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.|Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.|Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.|Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.|Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA.
authors.forename: Niklas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wilming
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.|Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK.
authors.forename: Tim C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Kietzmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.|Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.|Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jutras
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center - Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center - Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany.|Faculty of Biology and Psychology, Goettingen University, Goettingen, Germany.|Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Goettingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Treue
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.|Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.|Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Buffalo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.|Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: König
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013045:Species Specificity; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: human macaque comparison; low-level salience; oculomotor control; overt visual attention