Neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) are modulated by direction of gaze in monkeys trained to fixate at different locations in space (Sharma et al, SFN 1999). We have now examined the progressive dependence of responses on the sequential appearance of a fixation locus. Two monkeys were trained to fixate at one of three separate locations, while single unit recordings were made from V1 neurons in response to sinusoidal gratings presented in their receptive fields. In Condition 1, the spot appeared repeatedly at the same location for a number of trials. This resulted in progressively shorter latencies to achieve fixation as the trials progressed. No such systematic change in fixation latency was observed in Condition 2, where the fixation spot varied randomly from trial to trial. In a subset of neurons, there was a significant modulation in spike responses to gratings of the preferred orientation presented at a particular location in the sequential condition, compared to responses to gratings of the same or...