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Abstract:
In vision, an upcoming saccade is associated with a shift of
visual attention in the direction of that saccade. Recently it has
been shown that planned visual saccades also lead to a shift in
auditory attention (Rorden and Driver, Neuropsychologia, 1999). In
order to test if there is a similar shift in attention in the
tactile modality, we cued visual attention while a participant was
asked to make a tactile discrimination on one or other of their
hands. Eye position was measured to determine which trials
participants shifted their gaze, while we measured the latency to
discriminate the tactile stimuli. In a first experiment,
participants had their hands placed to each side, with the left
hand on the left, and the right hand on the right. Under these
conditions, a clear reduction in the reaction time to discriminate
tactile stimuli was seen when a saccade was about to be made. In a
second experiment, participants crossed their arms, such that the
left hand was on the right, and vice versa. Now a visual cue to
shift left directs attention towards the right hand. Under these
conditions, a significant reduction in the cueing effect was seen.
These results suggest that although there is supramodal integration
of attention the reference frame of attention may be organized
within each modality.
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