It has been proposed that saccadic eye movements to visual targets are preceded by covert shifts of attention to these locations. In this review, we discuss the evidence for this hypothesis and the role of brain regions in directing rapid shifts of attention and gaze. We suggest there is a common neural architecture mediating both these types of movement.

Recent functional brain imaging studies have shown that sensory-specific brain regions that are activated during perception/encoding of sensory-specific information are reactivated during memory retrieval of the same information. Here we used PET to examine whether verbal retrieval of action phrases is associated with reactivation of motor brain regions if the actions were overtly or covertly p...

We investigated whether attention shifts and eye movement preparation are mediated by shared control mechanisms, as claimed by the premotor theory of attention. ERPs were recorded in three tasks where directional cues presented at the beginning of each trial instructed participants to direct their attention to the cued side without eye movements (Covert task), to prepare an eye movement in the ...

Abstract The current experiments investigated the long-term advantage for words studied during complex span versus simple span, i.e., McCabe effect. According to covert retrieval account, effect occurs because affords opportunities that facilitate episodic memory (EM). Conversely, time-in-working-memory (WM) hypothesis asserts time items spend in WM predicts EM, irrespective of any opportunity ...

Background: Impaired DNA repair mechanism is one of the main causes of tumor genesis. Study of intrinsic radiosensitivity of cancer patients in a non-target tissue (e.g. peripheral blood) might show the extent of DNA repair deficiency of cells in affected individuals and might be used a predictor of cancer predisposition. Methods: Initial radiation-induced DNA damage (ratio of Tail DNA/Head DN...

A lthough there can clearly be an argument regarding the threshold at which it becomes a disease, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is ultimately the result of excessive gastro-oesophageal reflux and the associated consequences of that. It then seems rather straightforward that therapeutic interventions should seek to reduce or eliminate gastrooesophageal reflux. The paradox is that the ...

Plasma membrane damage elicits a complex and dynamic cellular response. A vital component of this response, membrane resealing, is thought to arise from fusion of intracellular membranous compartments to form a temporary, impermeant patch at the site of damage; however, this hypothesis has been difficult to confirm visually. By utilizing advanced microscopy technologies with high spatiotemporal...

The covert-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep hypothesis of dreaming suggests that elements of REM sleep emerge during sleep onset, leading to vivid hypnagogic imagery. We tested the physiological part of this hypothesis by analysing scalp-recorded electroencephalograms of 15 human subjects during wake-sleep transition and subsequent night time sleep. Wake-sleep transition was categorised semi-auto...