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

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. •Attentional modulation in V4 emerges only after microsaccades toward the stimulus•Onset of attention modulations is coupled to microsaccade onset•Object decoding is enhanced in V4 and IT after microsaccades toward the cued stimulus•Linkage between attention modulation and microsaccades is extra-retinal Attention can be “covertly” directed without eye movements; yet, even during fixation, there are microsaccades. We found that neural activity was enhanced by attention, but only following a microsaccade toward the stimulus, revealing a major link between covert attention and the oculomotor system.