Fixational saccade inhibition and pupil dilation during self-paced limb movement preparation.

ABSTRACT: Fixational saccades are modulated in anticipation of several kinds of stimuli and motor actions, suggesting that they can form an overt marker of preparatory state. However, no existing work has studied fixational saccades ahead of spontaneous limb movements in the absence of sensory stimuli, in order to isolate motor preparation from other anticipatory processes (e.g., those related to stimulus processing). Here we examined fixational saccades while participants made self-paced hand and foot movements. We observed that fixational saccade rate steadily dropped prior to either kind of motor action, and recovered immediately after. To examine the relation between this fixational saccade rate signal and other known signals that precede volitional action, we analyzed how this signal related to

SUBMITTER: Brascamp JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12558460 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature