Efficient control of attentional resources and high-acuity vision are both fundamental for survival. Shifts in visual attention are known to covertly enhance processing at locations away from the center of gaze, where visual resolution is low. It is unknown, however, whether selective spatial attention operates where the observer is already looking-that is, within the high-acuity foveola, the small yet disproportionally important rod-free region of the retina. Using new methods for precisely controlling retinal stimulation, here we show that covert attention flexibly improves and speeds up both detection and discrimination at loci only a fraction of a degree apart within the foveola. These findings reveal a surprisingly precise control of attention and its involvement in fine spatial vision. They show that the commonly studied covert shifts of attention away from the fovea are the expression of a global mechanism that exerts its action across the entire visual field.

中文翻译：

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中央凹内的选择性注意。

有效控制注意力资源和高敏锐视力都是生存的基础。众所周知，视觉注意力的转移会隐蔽地增强远离视线中心（视觉分辨率较低）的位置的处理。然而，未知的是，选择性的空间注意力是否在观察者已经看过的地方起作用，也就是说，在高视力中央凹中，是视网膜的小而无比例重要的无杆区域。使用精确控制视网膜刺激的新方法，我们发现隐秘的注意力可以灵活地改善和加快在小凹处相距仅一小部分度数的位点处的检测和辨别速度。这些发现揭示了注意力的精确控制及其在精细空间视觉中的参与。