Characterizing the Brain Dynamics and Eye Movement Behavior of Memory-Guided Saccades: a Preliminary Investigation of Distractor Influence on Memory-Guided Saccades

Research has helped to shed light on the functional organization and neural mechanisms of distractors on memory-guided saccades. In our current study we have utilized eye tracking and EEG technology to simultaneously record the changes in saccadic eye movement (SEM) behavior and event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with performance on a memory-guided saccade task with distractor conditions. Thirteen healthy control participants (n = 13; 6 female) were tasked to complete 864 memory-guided saccade trials with both visible (white) and invisible (black) distractors presented on a black background before saccade initiation. Compared with the control (black) distractor condition, distractor presentation produced a significant change in saccade latency; whereas visible contralateral vs ipsilateral distractor presentation produced no significant change in ERP amplitude or time. The results of our study suggest that distractor presentation prior to initiating a memory-guided saccade has an observable effect on saccadic eye movement, but no effect on ERP profiles in healthy control participants. From these data we may conclude that suddenly appearing stimuli have a measurable influence on the behavior of our memory-guided eye movements