Spatiotopic updating facilitates perception immediately after saccades

Fabius, J.H., Fracasso, A. and Van Der Stigchel, S. (2016) Spatiotopic updating facilitates perception immediately after saccades. Scientific Reports, 6, 34488. (doi: 10.1038/srep34488) (PMID:27686998) (PMCID:PMC5043283)

Abstract

As the neural representation of visual information is initially coded in retinotopic coordinates, eye movements (saccades) pose a major problem for visual stability. If no visual information were maintained across saccades, retinotopic representations would have to be rebuilt after each saccade. It is currently strongly debated what kind of information (if any at all) is accumulated across saccades, and when this information becomes available after a saccade. Here, we use a motion illusion to examine the accumulation of visual information across saccades. In this illusion, an annulus with a random texture slowly rotates, and is then replaced with a second texture (motion transient). With increasing rotation durations, observers consistently perceive the transient as large rotational jumps in the direction opposite to rotation direction (backward jumps). We first show that accumulated motion information is updated spatiotopically across saccades. Then, we show that this accumulated information is readily available after a saccade, immediately biasing postsaccadic perception. The current findings suggest that presaccadic information is used to facilitate postsaccadic perception and are in support of a forward model of transsaccadic perception, aiming at anticipating the consequences of eye movements and operating within the narrow perisaccadic time window.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by a VIDI Grant 452-13- 008 from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research to S.V.d.S.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Fracasso, Dr Alessio
• Authors: Fabius, J.H., Fracasso, A., and Van Der Stigchel, S.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 6: 34488
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License