Eyes on the past: Gaze stability differs between temporal expectation and temporal attention

Abstract

AbstractTemporal expectation and temporal attention distinctly improve performance and gaze stability, and interact at the behavioral and neural levels. Foreperiod—the interval between the preparatory signal and stimulus onset—facilitates temporal expectation. Preceding foreperiod—the foreperiod in the previous trial—modulates expectation at behavioral and oculomotor levels. Here, we investigated whether preceding foreperiod guides temporal attention. Regardless of the preceding foreperiod, temporal attention improved performance, particularly at early moments,and consistently accelerated gaze stability onset and offset by shifting microsaccade timing. However, only with preceding expected foreperiods, attention inhibited microsaccade rates. Moreover, preceding late foreperiods weakened expectation effects on microsaccade rates, but such a weakening was overridden by attention. Altogether, these findings reveal that the oculomotor system’s flexibility does not translate to performance, and suggest that although selection history can be utilized as one of the sources of expectation in subsequent trials, it does not necessarily determine, strengthen, or guide attentional deployment.