Are Eye Movements and EEG on the Same Page?: A Coregistration Study on Parafoveal Preview and Lexical Frequency
Date
2023Author
Milligan, Sara
Antúnez, Martín
Barber, Horacio A.
Schotter, Elizabeth R.
Metadata
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Milligan S, Antúnez M, Barber HA, Schotter ER. Are eye movements and EEG on the same page?: A coregistration study on parafoveal preview and lexical frequency. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2023 Jan;152(1):188-210. doi: 10.1037/xge0001278. Epub 2022 Sep 15. PMID: 36107695.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Abstract
Readers extract visual and linguistic information not only from fixated words but also upcoming parafoveal
words to introduce new input efficiently into the language processing pipeline. The lexical frequency
of upcoming words and similarity with subsequent foveal information both influence the amount
of time people spend once they fixate the word foveally. However, it is unclear from eye movements
alone the extent to which parafoveal word processing, and the integration of that word with foveally
obtained information, continues after saccade plans have been initiated. To investigate the underlying
neural processes involved in word recognition after saccade planning, we coregistered electroencephalogram
(EEG) and eye movements during a gaze-contingent display change paradigm. We orthogonally
manipulated the frequency of the parafoveal and foveal words and measured fixation related potentials
(FRPs) upon foveal fixation. Eye movements showed primarily an effect of preview frequency, suggesting
that saccade planning is based on the familiarity of the parafoveal input. FRPs, on the other hand,
demonstrated a disruption in downstream processing when parafoveal and foveal input differed, but
only when the parafoveal word was high frequency. These findings demonstrate that lexical processing
continues after the eyes have moved away from a word and that eye movements and FRPs provide distinct
but complementary accounts about oculomotor behavior and neural processing that cannot be
obtained from either method in isolation. Furthermore, these findings put constraints on models of reading
by suggesting that lexical processes that occur before an eye movement program is initiated are
qualitatively different from those that occur afterward.