Task difficulty in mental arithmetic affects microsaccadic rates and magnitudes

European Journal of Neuroscience

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 287-294

  Siegenthaler, Eva ^a   Costela, Francisco M ^a,b   Mccamy, Michael B ^a   Di Stasi, Leandro L ^a,c   Otero Millan, Jorge ^a,d   Sonderegger, Andreas ^e   Groner, Rudolf ^f   Macknik, Stephen ^a   Martinez Conde, Susana ^a  

^a BARROW NEUROLOGICAL INSTITUTE   (United States)

^b ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA   (Spain)

^d JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

^e UNIVERSITY OF FRIBOURG   (Switzerland)

^f UNIVERSITY OF BERN   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

Attention; Fixational eye movements; Microsaccades; Task load

Indexed keywords

ADULT; AROUSAL; ARTICLE; ATTENTION; CONTROLLED STUDY; EYE FIXATION; EYE POSITION; FEMALE; GAZE; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; MALE; MENTAL ARITHMETIC; MENTAL TASK; MICROSACCADE; NORMAL HUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; QUESTIONNAIRE; SACCADIC EYE MOVEMENT; SUPERIOR COLLICULUS; TASK PERFORMANCE; VISUAL STIMULATION; WORKING MEMORY;

ATTENTION; FIXATIONAL EYE MOVEMENTS; MICROSACCADES; TASK LOAD;

ADULT; ATTENTION; EYE MOVEMENT MEASUREMENTS; FEMALE; FIXATION, OCULAR; HUMANS; MALE; MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS; PROBLEM SOLVING; QUESTIONNAIRES; SACCADES; TASK PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS; TIME FACTORS;

EID: 84892673471     PISSN: 0953816X     EISSN: 14609568     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/ejn.12395     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. Awh, E. & Jonides, J. (2001) Overlapping mechanisms of attention and spatial working memory. Trends Cogn. Sci., 5, 119-126.
2. Awh, E., Jonides, J. & Reuter-Lorenz, P.A. (1998) Rehearsal in spatial working memory. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform., 24, 780-790.
3. Benedetto, S., Pedrotti, M. & Bridgeman, B. (2011) Microsaccades and exploratory saccades in a naturalistic environment. J. Eye Mov. Res., 4, 1-10.
4. Bradley, M.M. & Lang, P.J. (1994) Measuring emotion: the self-assessment manikin and the semantic differential. J. Behav. Ther. Exp. Psy., 25, 49-59.
5. Brainard, D.H. (1997) The psychophysics toolbox. Spatial Vision, 10, 433-436.
6. Cain, B. (2007) A Review of the Mental Workload Literature. Report #RTO-TR-HFM-121-Part-II. Defense Research and Development Canada, Toronto.
7. Chen, Y., Martinez-Conde, S., Macknik, S.L., Bereshpolova, Y., Swadlow, H.A. & Alonso, J.M. (2008) Task difficulty modulates the activity of specific neuronal populations in primary visual cortex. Nat. Neurosci., 11, 974-982.
8. Costela, F.M., McCamy, M.B., Macknik, S.L., Otero-Millan, J. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013) Microsaccades restore the visibility of minute foveal targets. PeerJ, 1, e119.
9. Di Stasi, L.L., McCamy, M.B., Catena, A., Macknik, S.L., Canas, J.J. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013a) Microsaccade and drift dynamics reflect mental fatigue. Eur. J. Neurosci., 38, 2389-2398.
10. Di Stasi, L.L., McCamy, M.B., Macknik, S.L., Mankin, J., Hooft, N., Catena, A. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013b) Saccadic eye movement metrics reflect surgical residents' fatigue. Ann. Surg., doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000000260. [Epub ahead of print].
11. Di Stasi, L.L., Catena, A., Cañas, J.J., Macknik, S.L. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013c) Saccadic velocity as an arousal index in naturalistic tasks. Neurosci. Biobehav. R., 37, 968-975.
12. Di Stasi, L.L., Macknik, S.L., & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013d) System and method for using microsaccade peak velocity as a measure of mental workload and fatigue. WO 2013078461 A1. Abstract.
13. Engbert, R. (2006a) Microsaccades: a microcosm for research on oculomotor control, attention, and visual perception. Prog. Brain Res., 154, 177-192.
14. Engbert, R. (2006b) Flick-Induced flips in perception. Neuron, 49, 168-170.
15. Engbert, R. & Kliegl, R. (2003) Microsaccades uncover the orientation of covert attention. Vision Res., 43, 1035-1045.
16. Gao, Q., Wang, Y., Song, F., Li, Z. & Dong, X. (2013) Mental workload measurement for emergency operating procedures in digital nuclear power plants. Ergonomics, 56, 1070-1085.
17. Hafed, Z.M., Goffart, L. & Krauzlis, R.J. (2009) A neural mechanism for microsaccade generation in the primate superior colliculus. Science, 323, 940-943.
18. Hart, S.G. (2006) NASA-task load index (NASA-TLX); 20 years later. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, pp. 904-908.
19. Hart, S.G. & Staveland, L.E. (1988) Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): results of empirical and theoretical research. Hum. Mental Workload, 1, 139-183.
20. Hikosaka, O. & Sakamoto, M. (1986) Neural activities in the monkey basal ganglia related to attention, memory and anticipation. Brain Dev., 8, 454-461.
21. Hockey, G.R.J. (1997) Compensatory control in the regulation of human performance under stress and high workload: a cognitive-energetical framework. Biol. Psychol., 45, 73-93.
22. Ignashchenkova, A., Dicke, P.W., Haarmeier, T. & Thier, P. (2004) Neuron-specific contribution of the superior colliculus to overt and covert shifts of attention. Nat. Neurosci., 7, 56-64.
23. Kleiner, M., Brainard, D., Pelli, D., Ingling, A., Murray, R. & Broussard, C. (2007) What's new in Psychtoolbox-3. Perception, 36, ECVP-2007 Abstract Supplement.
24. Laubrock, J., Engbert, R. & Kliegl, R. (2005) Microsaccade dynamics during covert attention. Vision Res., 45, 721-730.
25. Martinez-Conde, S., Macknik, S.L. & Hubel, D.H. (2004) The role of fixational eye movements in visual perception. Nat. Rev. Neurosci., 5, 229-240.
26. Martinez-Conde, S., Macknik, S.L., Troncoso, X.G. & Dyar, T.A. (2006) Microsaccades counteract visual fading during fixation. Neuron, 49, 297-305.
27. Martinez-Conde, S., Macknik, S.L., Troncoso, X.G. & Hubel, D.H. (2009) Microsaccades: a neurophysiological analysis. Trends Neurosci., 32, 463-475.
28. Martinez-Conde, S., Otero-Millan, J. & Macknik, S.L. (2013) The impact of microsaccades on vision: towards a unified theory of saccadic function. Nat. Rev. Neurosci., 14, 83-96.
29. McCamy, M.B., Otero-Millan, J., Macknik, S.L., Yang, Y., Troncoso, X.G., Baer, S.M., Crook, S.M. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2012) Microsaccadic efficacy and contribution to foveal and peripheral vision. J. Neurosci., 32, 9194-9204.
30. McCamy, M.B., Najafian Jazi, A., Otero-Millan, J., Macknik, S.L. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013a) The effects of fixation target size and luminance on microsaccades and square-wave jerks. PeerJ, 1, e9.
31. McCamy, M.B., Collins, N., Otero-Millan, J., Al-Kalbani, M., Macknik, S.L., Coakley, D., Troncoso, X.G., Boyle, G., Narayanan, V., Wolf, T.R. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013b) Simultaneous recordings of ocular microtremor and microsaccades with a piezoelectric sensor and a video-oculography system. PeerJ, 1, e14.
32. Møller, F., Laursen, M., Tygesen, J. & Sjølie, A. (2002) Binocular quantification and characterization of microsaccades. Graef. Arch. Clin. Exp. Ophthalmol., 240, 765-770.
33. Otero-Millan, J., Troncoso, X.G., Macknik, S.L., Serrano-Pedraza, I. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2008) Saccades and microsaccades during visual fixation, exploration and search: foundations for a common saccadic generator. J. Vision, 8, 14-21.
34. Otero-Millan, J., Macknik, S.L., Serra, A., Leigh, R.J. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2011) Triggering mechanisms in microsaccade and saccade generation: a novel proposal. Ann. NY Acad. Sci., 1233, 107-116.
35. Otero-Millan, J., Macknik, S.L., Langston, R.E. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2013) An oculomotor continuum from exploration to fixation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 110, 6175-6180.
36. Pastukhov, A. & Braun, J. (2010) Rare but precious: microsaccades are highly informative about attentional allocation. Vision Res., 50, 1173-1184.
37. Pelli, D.G. (1997) The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: transforming numbers into movies. Spatial Vision, 10, 437-442.
38. Rolfs, M. (2009) Microsaccades: small steps on a long way. Vision Res., 49, 2415-2441.
39. Rolfs, M., Laubrock, J. & Kliegl, R. (2006) Shortening and prolongation of saccade latencies following microsaccades. Exp. Brain Res., 169, 369-376.
40. Rolfs, M., Kliegl, R. & Engbert, R. (2008) Toward a model of microsaccade generation: the case of microsaccadic inhibition. J. Vision, 8, 1-23.
41. Roth, P.L. (1994) Missing data: a conceptual review for applied psychologists. Pers. Psychol., 47, 537-560.
42. Schall, J.D. (2004) On the role of frontal eye field in guiding attention and saccades. Vision Res., 44, 1453-1468.
43. Theeuwes, J., Belopolsky, A. & Olivers, C.N.L. (2009) Interactions between working memory, attention and eye movements. Acta Psychol. (Amst), 132, 106-114.
44. Troncoso, X.G., Macknik, S.L. & Martinez-Conde, S. (2008) Microsaccades counteract perceptual filling-in. J. Vision, 8, 1-9.
45. WMA (1964) Human experimentation: code of ethics of W.M.A. Brit. Med. J., 2, 177.