Manual responses to visual stimuli: early and late facilitatory effects due to the offset of a peripheral cue

Arquivos Brasileiros de Oftalmologia

Walter Machado-pinheiro²  Luiz G. Gawryszewski¹  Antônio Pereira Jr.¹ 

[1] ,Universidade Federal Fluminense Instituto Biomédico Departamento de Fisiologia e Farmacologia

关键词: Reaction time;    Preparation;    Expectancy;    Gap effect;    Visual offset;    Express responses;    Tempo de reação;    Preparação;    Expectativa;    Efeito de intervalo;    Desaparecimento visual;    Respostas expressas;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0004-27492003000600013

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

Manual and saccadic reaction times (MRTs and SRTs) are reduced when a warning signal precedes the onset of a target. The decreasing on SRTs observed after the offset of a fixation point has been called the gap effect. Different theories have been proposed to explain it. According to some authors, the offset also allows the saccadic system to generate a separate population of SRTs, the express saccades. Nevertheless there is no agreement about the influence of the offset of a peripheral stimulus on MRT. In two experiments we tested the effects of a peripheral visual offset used as preparatory signal on MRTs to a target after variable intervals. We found a reduction on MRT at short (200-300 ms) and long (1300-2000 ms) intervals after the peripheral offset. MRT distribution shifted toward short latencies, which sometimes formed a separate population. Since MRTs obtained at long intervals were affected by the introduction of catch trials, while MRTs at short intervals were not, we propose that two different mechanisms are involved in the decreasing of MRTs: warning and temporal expectancy. Our data support the hypothesis that the temporal component involved with the preparatory stages for motor responses can be shared by saccadic movements and key press responses, allowing the reduction on motor latencies after the visual offset in the gap paradigm. Our data corroborate the three components model for the gap effect. In our view, the question of the existence or not of a gap effect for manual responses is essentially conceptual.

【 授权许可】

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