# Presaccadic attentional shifts are not modulated by saccade amplitude

## TL;DR

This study shows that the brain enhances visual perception at the target of an upcoming eye movement, regardless of how large the eye movement will be.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that presaccadic perceptual enhancement is consistent across different saccade amplitudes.

## Key findings

- Saccade preparation enhanced contrast sensitivity at all tested eccentricities.
- Presaccadic perceptual enhancement was not influenced by the amplitude of the saccades.
- Visual processing at intended gaze positions is consistently enhanced regardless of saccade size.

## Abstract

Humans constantly explore the visual environment through saccades, bringing relevant visual stimuli to the center of the gaze. Before the eyes begin to move, visual attention is directed to the intended saccade target. As a consequence of this presaccadic shift of attention (PSA), visual perception is enhanced at the future gaze position. PSA has been investigated in a variety of saccade amplitudes, from microsaccades to locations that exceed the oculomotor range. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that PSA effects on visual perception are not equally distributed around the visual field. However, it remains unknown whether the magnitude of presaccadic perceptual enhancement varies with the amplitude of the saccades. Here, we measured contrast sensitivity thresholds during saccade planning in a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) discrimination task in human observers. Filtered pink noise (1/f) patches, presented at four eccentricities scaled in size according to the cortical magnification factor were used as visual targets. This method was adopted to mitigate well-known eccentricity effects on perception, thereby enabling us to explore the effects associated to saccade amplitudes. First, our results show that saccade preparation enhanced contrast sensitivity in all tested eccentricities. Importantly, we found that this presaccadic perceptual enhancement was not modulated by the amplitude of the saccades. These findings suggest that presaccadic attention operates consistently across different saccade amplitudes, enhancing visual processing at intended gaze positions regardless of saccade size.