Spatial and temporal attention revealed by microsaccades

We compared the spatial and temporal allocation of attention as revealed by microsaccades. Observers viewed several concurrent “rapid serial visual presentation” (RSVP) streams in the periphery while maintaining fixation. They continually attended to, and discriminated targets in one particular, cued stream. Over and above this continuous allocation, spatial attention transients (“attention shifts”) were prompted by changes in the cued stream location and temporal attention transients (“attentional blinks”) by successful target discriminations. Note that the RSVP paradigm avoided the preparatory suppression of microsaccades in anticipation of stimulus or task events, which had been prominent in earlier studies. Both stream changes and target discriminations evoked residual modulations of microsaccade rate and direction, which were consistent with the presumed attentional dynamics in each case (i.e., attention shift and attentional blink, respectively). Interestingly, even microsaccades associated with neither stream change nor target discrimination reflected the continuous allocation of attention, inasmuch as their direction was aligned with the meridian of the target stream. We conclude that attentional allocation shapes microsaccadic activity continuously, not merely during dynamic episodes such as attentional shifts or blinks.

► Spatial and temporal attention transients differently modulate microsaccades. ► Microsaccades tend to align with the meridian of the attended location. ► Alignment with the attended meridian is also observed during continuous attention. ► Association between microsaccadic activity and attentional allocation is constant.