TY - JOUR AU - Martin, Jacob G. AU - Davis, Charles E. AU - Riesenhuber, Maximilian AU - Thorpe, Simon J. PY - 2020/06/28 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Microsaccades during high speed continuous visual search JF - Journal of Eye Movement Research JA - JEMR VL - 13 IS - 5 SE - Special Thematic Issue: „Microsaccades: Empirical Research and Methodological Advances“ DO - 10.16910/jemr.13.5.4 UR - https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/JEMR.13.5.4 SP - AB - <p><span id="cell-5251-contents" class="gridCellContainer"><span class="label">Here, we provide an analysis of the microsaccades that occurred during continuous visual search and targeting of small faces that we pasted either into cluttered background photos or into a simple gray background.&nbsp; Subjects continuously used their eyes to target singular 3-degree upright or inverted faces in changing scenes.&nbsp; As soon as the participant’s gaze reached the target face, a new face was displayed in a different and random location.&nbsp; Regardless of the experimental context (e.g. background scene, no background scene), or target eccentricity (from 4 to 20 degrees of visual angle), we found that the microsaccade rate dropped to near zero levels within only 12 milliseconds after stimulus onset.&nbsp; There were almost never any microsaccades after stimulus onset and before the first saccade to the face.&nbsp; One subject completed 118 consecutive trials without a single microsaccade.&nbsp; However, in about 20% of the trials, there was a single microsaccade that occurred almost immediately after the preceding saccade’s offset.&nbsp; These microsaccades were task oriented because their facial landmark targeting distributions matched those of saccades within both the upright and inverted face conditions.&nbsp; Our findings show that a single feedforward pass through the visual hierarchy for each stimulus is likely all that is needed to effectuate prolonged continuous visual search.&nbsp; In addition, we provide evidence that microsaccades can serve perceptual functions like correcting saccades or effectuating task-oriented goals during continuous visual search.</span></span></p> ER -