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Presaccadic attention enhances contrast sensitivity, but not at the upper vertical meridian.

ABSTRACT: Visual performance has striking polar performance asymmetries: At a fixed eccentricity, it is better along the horizontal than vertical meridian and the lower than upper vertical meridian. These asymmetries are not alleviated by covert exogenous or endogenous attention, but have been studied exclusively during eye fixation. However, a major driver of everyday attentional orienting is saccade preparation, during which attention automatically shifts to the future eye fixation. This presaccadic attention shift is considered strong and compulsory, and relies on different neural computations and substrates than covert attention. Thus, we asked: Can presaccadic attention compensate for the ubiquitous performance asymmetries observed during eye fixation? Our data replicate polar performance asymmetries during fixation and document the same asymmetries during saccade preparation. Crucially, however, presaccadic attention enhanced contrast sensitivity at the horizontal and lower vertical meridian, but not at the upper vertical meridian. Thus, instead of attenuating performance asymmetries, presaccadic attention exacerbates them.

SUBMITTER: Hanning NM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8850791 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Presaccadic attention enhances contrast sensitivity, but not at the upper vertical meridian.

Hanning Nina M NM Himmelberg Marc M MM Carrasco Marisa M

iScience 20220201 2

Visual performance has striking polar performance asymmetries: At a fixed eccentricity, it is better along the horizontal than vertical meridian and the lower than upper vertical meridian. These asymmetries are not alleviated by covert exogenous or endogenous attention, but have been studied exclusively during eye fixation. However, a major driver of everyday attentional orienting is saccade preparation, during which attention automatically shifts to the future eye fixation. This presaccadic att ...[more]

PMID: 35198902

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Project description:Short- and long-wavelength light can alter pupillary responses differently, allowing inferences to be made about the contribution of different photoreceptors on pupillary constriction. In addition to classical retinal photoreceptors, the pupillary light response is formed by the activity of melanopsin-expressing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC). It has been shown in rodents that melanopsin is expressed in the axons of ipRGCs that bundle at the optic nerve head, which forms the perceptual blind-spot. Hence, the first aim of this study was to investigate if blind-spot stimulation induces a pupillary response. The second aim was to investigate the effect of blind-spot stimulation by using the contrast sensitivity tests. Fifteen individuals participated in the pupil response experiment and thirty-two individuals in the contrast sensitivity experiment. The pupillary change was quantified using the post-illumination pupil response (PIPR) amplitudes after blue-light (experimental condition) and red-light (control condition) pulses in the time window between 2 s and 6 s post-illumination. The contrast sensitivity was assessed using two different tests: the Freiburg Visual Acuity Test and Contrast Test and the Tuebingen Contrast Sensitivity Test, respectively. Contrast sensitivity was measured before and 20 minutes after binocular blue-light stimulation of the blind-spot at spatial frequencies higher than or equal to 3 cycles per degree (cpd) and at spatial frequencies lower than 3 cpd (control condition). Blue-light blind-spot stimulation induced a significantly larger PIPR compared to red-light, confirming a melanopsin-mediated pupil-response in the blind-spot. Furthermore, contrast sensitivity was increased after blind-spot stimulation, confirmed by both contrast sensitivity tests. Only spatial frequencies of at least 3 cpd were enhanced. This study demonstrates that stimulating the blind-spot with blue-light constricts the pupil and increases the contrast sensitivity at higher spatial frequencies.

Dataset Information

Presaccadic attention enhances contrast sensitivity, but not at the upper vertical meridian.

Publications

Presaccadic attention enhances contrast sensitivity, but not at the upper vertical meridian.

Similar Datasets

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