Antisaccade Task

Abstract

Antisaccades require the top-down suppression of a\rstimulus-driven prosaccade (i.e., response suppression)\rand the inversion of a target’s spatial location to mirror-\rsymmetrical space (i.e., vector inversion). Moreover,\rrecent work has shown that antisaccade amplitudes are\rcharacterized by a statistical summary representation\r(SSR) of the target eccentricities included in a stimulus-\rset—a result suggesting that antisaccades are supported\rvia the same relative visual information as perceptions.\rThe present investigation sought to determine whether\rresponse suppression and the disruption of real-time\rcontrol or vector inversion contribute to a SSR in\roculomotor control. Participants completed pro- and\rantisaccades (target eccentricities of 10.58, 15.58, and\r20.58) in blocks of trials that differed with regard to the\rfrequency that individual target eccentricities were\rpresented. The manipulation of target eccentricity\rfrequency was used to determine whether the most\rfrequently presented target within a stimulus-set (i.e., the\rSSR) influences saccade amplitudes. Moreover, we\rdisrupted the real-time control of prosaccades by requiring\rparticipants to suppress their response for a brief visual\rdelay (i.e., 2000 ms: so-called delay prosaccade). As\rexpected, antisaccades and delay prosaccades produced\requivalent reaction times. In turn, amplitudes for delay\rprosaccades were refractory to the manipulation of target\reccentricity frequency, whereas antisaccades were biased\rin the direction of the most frequently presented target\rwithin a stimulus-set. Accordingly, we propose that vector\rinversion contributes to the mediation of target\reccentricities via a SSR and that such a phenomenon\rprovides convergent evidence that a relative visual\rpercept mediates antisaccades.\r