Author(s)

D. Balslev, W. Newman, P. C. Knox

ISBN

0146-0404

Publication year

2012

Periodical

Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science

Periodical Number

11

Volume

53

Pages

7004-7009

Author Address

Balslev, D Univ Tubingen, Ctr Neurol, Div Neuropsychol, Hertie Inst Clin Brain Res, Hoppe Seyler Str 3, D-72076 Tubingen, Germany Univ Tubingen, Ctr Neurol, Div Neuropsychol, Hertie Inst Clin Brain Res, D-72076 Tubingen, Germany Univ Copenhagen, Dept Psychol, Copenhagen, Denmark Alder Hey Childrens Natl Hlth Serv Fdn Trust, Dept Paediat Ophthalmol, Liverpool, Merseyside, England Univ Liverpool, Dept Eye & Vis Sci, Liverpool L69 3BX, Merseyside, England

Full version

PURPOSE. Extraocular muscle afferent signals contribute to oculomotor control and visual localization. Prompted by the close links between the oculomotor and attention systems, it was investigated whether these proprioceptive signals also modulated the allocation of attention in space.
METHODS. A suction sclera contact lens was used to impose an eye rotation on the nonviewing, dominant eye. With their viewing, nondominant eye, participants (n – 4) fixated centrally and detected targets presented at 5 degrees in the left or right visual hemifield. The position of the viewing eye was monitored throughout the experiment. As a control, visual localization was tested using finger pointing without visual feedback of the hand, whereas the nonviewing eye remained deviated.
RESULTS. The sustained passive rotation of the occluded, dominant eye, while the other eye maintained central fixation, resulted in a lateralized change in the detectability of visual targets. In all participants, the advantage in speed and accuracy for detecting right versus left hemifield targets that occurred during a sustained rightward eye rotation of the dominant eye was reduced or reversed by a leftward eye rotation. The control experiment confirmed that the eye deviation procedure caused pointing errors consistent with an approximately 28 shift in perceived eye position, in the direction of rotation of the nonviewing eye.
CONCLUSIONS. With the caveat of the small number of participants, these results suggest that extraocular muscle afferent signals modulate the deployment of attention in visual space. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012;53:7004-7009) DOI:10.1167/iovs.12-10249