Inducing oculomotor plasticity to disclose the functional link between voluntary saccades and endogenous attention deployed perifoveally.

ABSTRACT: To what extent oculomotor and attention systems are linked remains strongly debated. Previous studies suggested that saccadic adaptation, a well-studied model of oculomotor plasticity, and orienting of attention rely on overlapping networks in the parietal cortex and can functionally interact. Using a Posner-like paradigm in healthy human subjects, we demonstrate for the first time that saccadic adaptation boosts endogenous attention orienting. Indeed, the discrimination of perifoveal targets benefits more from central cues after backward adaptation of leftward voluntary saccades than after a control saccade task. We propose that the overlap of underlying neural networks actually consists of neuronal populations co-activated by oculomotor plasticity and endogenous attention deployed perifo

SUBMITTER: Nicolas J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6882914 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature