Volitional control of saccadic adaptation

Saccadic adaptation is assumed to be driven by an unconscious and automatic mechanism. We wondered if the adaptation process is accessible to volitional control, specifically whether any change in saccade gain can be inhibited. Participants were exposed to post-saccadic error by using the double-ste...

Verfasser: Heins, Frauke
Meermeier, Annegret
Lappe, Markus
FB/Einrichtung:FB 07: Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft
Dokumenttypen:Artikel
Medientypen:Text
Erscheinungsdatum:2019
Publikation in MIAMI:22.08.2019
Datum der letzten Änderung:22.08.2019
Angaben zur Ausgabe:[Electronic ed.]
Quelle:PLoS ONE 14 (2019) 1, e0210020, 1-20
Fachgebiet (DDC):150: Psychologie
Lizenz:CC BY 4.0
Sprache:English
Förderung:Finanziert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 2018 der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) und der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU Münster).
Format:PDF-Dokument
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-04109463492
Weitere Identifikatoren:DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210020
Permalink:https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-04109463492
Onlinezugriff:artikel_heins_2019.pdf

Saccadic adaptation is assumed to be driven by an unconscious and automatic mechanism. We wondered if the adaptation process is accessible to volitional control, specifically whether any change in saccade gain can be inhibited. Participants were exposed to post-saccadic error by using the double-step paradigm in which a target is presented in a peripheral location and then stepped during the saccade to another location. In one condition, participants were instructed to follow the target step and look at the final target location. In the other condition they were instructed to inhibit the adjustment of saccade amplitude and look at the initial target location. We conducted two experiments, which differed in the size of the intra-saccadic target step. We found that when told to inhibit amplitude adjustment, gain change was close to zero for outward steps, but some adaptation remained for inward steps. Saccadic latency was not affected by the instruction type for inward steps, but when the target was stepped outward, latencies were longer in the inhibition than in the adaptation condition. The results show that volitional control can be exerted on saccadic adaptation. We suggest that volitional control affects the remapping of the target, thus having a larger impact on outward adaptation.