Enhanced Neural Processing by Covert Attention only during Microsaccades Directed toward the Attended Stimulus

SUMMARY Attention can be “covertly” directed without eye movements; yet, even during fixation, there are continuous microsaccades (MSs). In areas V4 and IT of macaques, we found that firing rates and stimulus representations were enhanced by attention but only following a MS toward the attended stimulus. The onset of neural attentional modulations was tightly coupled to the MS onset. The results reveal a major link between the effects of covert attention on cortical visual processing and the overt movement of the eyes.