Effects of visual environment complexity on saccade performance in humans with different functional asymmetry profiles.

Studies in 47 right-handed subjects with right and left leading eyes addressed the latent periods of visually-evoked saccades in the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal directions within the field of vision. Visual environments with three levels of temporospatial complexity and two standard time protocols of visual stimulation, with "gap" and "overlap," were used. In subjects with left leading eyes, saccades were more often performed with shorter latent periods in the direction ipsilateral to the leading eye than in the contralateral direction (53% versus 20%); among subjects with right leading eyes, the proportions with decreases in the latent periods in the ipsi- and contralateral directions were different (25% and 22%, respectively). Thus, there was a relationship between eye dominance and the spatial asymmetry of the latent periods of saccades.