Multiple memory-guided saccades: movement memory improves the accuracy of memory-guided saccades

Memory-guided saccades (MGSs) with 3 s memorization delay were recorded in healthy subjects using four different paradigms: two "regular'' MGS paradigms with the peripheral target lit for 0.2 s (MGS2) and for 1.8 s (MGS18); a multiple memory-guided saccade (MMGS) paradigm with the target lit for 1.8 s and the instruction to perform a visually guided saccade (VGS) towards it before the MGS; a trained memory-guided saccades (TMGSs) paradigm where the same target was presented so that the subjects should made 10 VGSs before the MGS. The longer target presentation interval (MGS18 paradigm) did not improve the accuracy of MGS. The execution of the VGSs improved the accuracy of the corrective saccades made after the first MGS to drive the eyes closer to the target, and this improvement was independent from the number of the VGSs (there was no difference between the MMGS and the TMGS paradigms). The VGSs provide a template that improves the capability of the corrective saccades to compensate for the residual position error at the end of the first saccade.