4.8 Article

Microsaccades as a marker not a cause for attention-related modulation

Journal

ELIFE
Volume 11, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.74168

Keywords

attention; microsaccades; superior colliculus; oculomotor system; visual suppression; Rhesus macaque

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Funding

  1. National Eye Institute Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Health [ZIA EY000511]

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Recent evidence suggests that microsaccades are not necessary for attention-related modulation, although they are linked to attention. Attention-related modulation can still occur in the absence of microsaccades.
Recent evidence suggests that microsaccades are causally linked to the attention-related modulation of neurons-specifically, that microsaccades toward the attended location are required for the subsequent changes in firing rate. These findings have raised questions about whether attention-related modulation is due to different states of attention as traditionally assumed or might instead be a secondary effect of microsaccades. Here, in two rhesus macaques, we tested the relationship between microsaccades and attention-related modulation in the superior colliculus (SC), a brain structure crucial for allocating attention. We found that attention-related modulation emerged even in the absence of microsaccades, was already present prior to microsaccades toward the cued stimulus, and persisted through the suppression of activity that accompanied all microsaccades. Nonetheless, consistent with previous findings, we also found significant attention-related modulation when microsaccades were directed toward, rather than away from, the cued location. Thus, despite the clear links between microsaccades and attention, microsaccades are not necessary for attention-related modulation, at least not in the SC. They do, however, provide an additional marker for the state of attention, especially at times when attention is shifting from one location to another.

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