Random noise textures as visual distractors for saccadic eye movements

1
Random noise textures as visual distractors for
saccadic eye movements
Brian White, Karl Gegenfurtner Dirk
Kerzel Email brian.j.white_at_psychol.uni-giessen.de
www.allpsych.uni-giessen.de
Remote distractors and an extended fixation
zone Walker et al. (1997)
Distractors and express saccades Weber Fischer
(1994)

• Target
• Gabor(4c/deg)
• Always 4, 7 or 10
• left or right of central fixation, and always
  simultaneous with distractor onset, except for
  Exp 3

10
Latency increased
Amplitude modulated
Target axis
Express saccades eliminated in either case
Results
EXP 3 Here we varied target onset relative to
the other events which remained simultaneous. For
the small patch, latencies were consistently
elevated at target SOAs lt 0. In contrast,
latencies were unaffected by onset of the large
patch during the same period, but at target SOAs
gt 0, the pattern reverses as a background of pink
noise actually facilitates saccadic latency.
EXP 1 We first tested whether a small
(2.3X2.3deg) patch of our texture would in fact
increase saccade latency similar to typical
remote distractors. The patch could appear
centrally or 4, 7 or 10 directly above or below
fixation. Our results show a sharp latency
increase for centrally displayed distractors
only.
No-distractor
T4 dotted T7 dashed T10 solid
No-distractor control
2.3 x 2.3 deg patch
Distractor
36 x 36 deg patch
Conclusion
References
Reingold Stampe (2002) Saccadic inhibition in
voluntary and reflexive saccades. JOCN, 14,
371-388. Walker, Deubel, Schneider Findlay
(1997) Effect of remote distractors on saccade
programming Evidence for an extended fixation
zone. J Neurophysiol, 78, 1108-1119. Weber
Fischer (1994) Differential effects of non-target
stimuli on the occurrence of express saccades in
man. Vision Research, 34, 1883-1891. White,
Gegenfurtner Kerzel (2005) Effects of
structured non-target stimuli on saccadic
latency. J Neurophysiol, (in press).