Temporal stability and training effects in "express saccade makers"

A gap between fixation target offset and saccade target onset encourages the production of express saccades (ES; latency 80-130ms). “Express saccade makers” (ESMs) produce almost exclusively ES in gap trials, and in overlap trials (fixation target present when the saccade target appears), a large proportion (>30%) of their saccades are ES. We investigated performance stability in ESM and nonESM participants over time and the effect of repeated exposure to gap and overlap tasks. Experiment 1. 113 participants (59 ESMs) completed two blocks of 200 overlap trials in the first session (T1). Sixty provided data on a second occasion (T2; 27 ESMs; 200 trials; mean of 87 days later) and 30 provided data on a third occasion (T3; 13 ESMs; 200 trials; mean of 94 days later). Eye movements were recorded using an infrared reflectance eye tracker. For each participant, the percentage of saccades with latencies of 80ms to 130ms (%ES) was calculated for all saccades with latencies between 50ms and 500ms. Participants displayed the same relative performance both within (T1, Block 1 vs 2: ICC=0.97,

Top-Down Contributions to Attention Shifting and Disengagement: A Template Model of Visual Attention

Two separate systems are involved in the control of spatial attention; one that is driven by a goal, and the other that is driven by stimuli. While the goal- and stimulus-driven systems follow different general principles, they also interplay with each other. However, the mechanism by which the goal-driven system influences the stimulus-driven system is still debated. The present study examined top-down contributions to two components of attention orienting, shifting and disengagement, with an experimental paradigm in which participants held a visual item in short-term memory (STM) and performed a prosaccade task with a manipulation of the gap between fixation offset and target onset. Four experiments showed that the STM content accelerated shifting and impaired disengagement, but the influence on disengagement depended on the utility of STM in guiding attention toward the target. Thus, the use of STM was strategic. Computational models of visual attention were fitted to the experimental data, which suggested that the top-down contributions to shifting was more prominent than those to disengagement. The results indicate that the current modeling framework was particularly useful when examining the contributions of theoretical constructs for the control of visual attention, but it also suggests limitations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved

Temporal Stability and the Effects of Training on Saccade Latency in “Express Saccade Makers”

The temporal stability of saccade latency, and the effects of training, particularly in “express saccade makers” (ESMs), has received little attention. ESMs are healthy, naïve, adults, who persist in executing very many low latency “express saccades” (ES; saccades with latency of 80 ms to 130 ms), in conditions designed to suppress such responses. We investigated the stability of ES production (%ES) in 59 ESM and 54 non-ESM participants in overlap tasks. Within a single session, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for %ES in two runs of 200 trials was 0.97 (p30% of saccades over the two runs were ES, were classified as ESMs. For 60 participants tested over two sessions 12 weeks apart, and 30 participants tested in three sessions over approximately six months, the ICC for %ES was uniformly high (0.95, p<0.001 and 0.97, p<0.001 respectively) and participants behaved consistently with their initial classification. Fourteen participants (7 ESMs) were then exposed to training consisting of either gap or overlap tasks. Training increased %ES in both groups. However, when tested in overlap tasks, it was not sufficient to transform Normal participants into ESMs. We conclude that the pattern of saccade behaviour exhibited by ESMs constitutes a stable and distinct oculomotor phenotype

Little Boat of Dreams

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Every Little Thing

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Exploring attentional mechanisms in express saccade makers.

Express saccade makers (ESMs) produce high proportions (>30%) of low latency (80–130ms) express saccades (ES) in prosaccade overlap tasks. ESMs are much more frequent in Chinese compared to other populations (Amatya et al. 2012; Knox & Wolohan, 2013), allowing us to explore them in detail. ESM performance is stable over time (Knox & Wolohan, 2015) and their antisaccade performance is poor compared to non-ESMs (Knox et al. 2012), although this is not due to a deficit in oculomotor inhibitory control (Wolohan & Knox, 2014). We examined the performance of 18 ESMs and 46 nonESMs, classified by their performance on 200 prosaccade overlap trials, in a classic manual-responsecueing paradigm. Participants completed 300 trials in which an eccentric target appearance (left/right randomised) was preceded by a spatially nonpredictive peripheral cue (valid, invalid or neutral; cue SOA 100 150ms). While expected cueing effects were observed (vali

Pupil Size Changes Influence Lasting Person Perceptions

Pupil size changes represent a subtle social cue, often processed outside of conscious awareness. Despite this subtlety, changes in pupil size affect our perceptions of the character and emotions of others. In a series experiments we demonstrated for the first time that pupil size changes are also encoded into long-term memory. In the experiments participants were exposed 51 Poster abstracts to faces whose pupils dilated or constricted. In a subsequent task they were asked to judge the faces for friendliness and interest. Importantly, at this later stage all the faces displayed pupils of the same size. Despite not noticing the pupil size changes in the previous task, participants’ ratings were influenced by whether a face had displayed dilated or constricted pupils. This effect interacted with the gender and trustworthiness of the facial stimuli, and affected participants differently if they had been primed to feel socially excluded. Extending this last finding we present unpublished data examining the influence of loneliness on pupil-memory effects. We found participants who were high in loneliness demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to pupil size changes. Conversely those who were less lonely showed the predicted pu