scholarly journals Transient spatiotopic integration across saccadic eye movements mediates visual stability

2013 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 1117-1125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido M. Cicchini ◽  
Paola Binda ◽  
David C. Burr ◽  
M. Concetta Morrone

Eye movements pose major problems to the visual system, because each new saccade changes the mapping of external objects on the retina. It is known that stimuli briefly presented around the time of saccades are systematically mislocalized, whereas continuously visible objects are perceived as spatially stable even when they undergo large transsaccadic displacements. In this study we investigated the relationship between these two phenomena and measured how human subjects perceive the position of pairs of bars briefly displayed around the time of large horizontal saccades. We show that they interact strongly, with the perisaccadic bar being drawn toward the other, dramatically altering the pattern of perisaccadic mislocalization. The interaction field extends over a wide range (200 ms and 20°) and is oriented along the retinotopic trajectory of the saccade-induced motion, suggesting a mechanism that integrates pre- and postsaccadic stimuli at different retinal locations but similar external positions. We show how transient changes in spatial integration mechanisms, which are consistent with the present psychophysical results and with the properties of “remapping cells” reported in the literature, can create transient craniotopy by merging the distinct retinal images of the pre- and postsaccadic fixations to signal a single stable object.

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 881-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie K. Seidlits ◽  
Tammie Reza ◽  
Kevin A. Briand ◽  
Anne B. Sereno

Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between saccadic eye movements and spatial attention, one fundamental issue remains controversial. Some studies have suggested that spatial attention facilitates saccades, whereas others have claimed that eye movements are actually inhibited when spatial attention is engaged. However, these discrepancies may be because previous research has neglected to separate and specify the effects of attention for two distinct types of saccades, namely reflexive (stimulus-directed) and voluntary (antisaccades). The present study explored the effects of voluntary spatial attention on both voluntary and reflexive saccades. Results indicate that voluntary spatial attention has different effects on the two types of saccades. Antisaccades were always greatly facilitated following the engagement of spatial attention by symbolic cues (arrows) informing the subject where the upcoming saccade should be directed. Reflexive saccades showed little or no cueing effects and exhibited significant facilitation only when these cues were randomly intermixed with uncued trials. In addition, the present study tested the effects of fixation condition (gap, step, and overlap) on attentional modulation. Cueing effects did not vary due to fixation condition. Thus, voluntary spatial attention consistently showed different effects on voluntary and reflexive saccades, and there was no evidence in these studies that voluntary cues inhibit reflexive saccades, even in a gap paradigm.


1991 ◽  
Vol 111 (sup481) ◽  
pp. 382-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Kubo ◽  
Takanori Saika ◽  
Yoshiharu Sakata ◽  
Yasuhiro Morita ◽  
Toru Matsunaga ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 491-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Martuzzi ◽  
Micah M. Murray ◽  
Reto A. Meuli ◽  
Jean-Philippe Thiran ◽  
Philippe P. Maeder ◽  
...  

The relationship between electrophysiological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals remains poorly understood. To date, studies have required invasive methods and have been limited to single functional regions and thus cannot account for possible variations across brain regions. Here we present a method that uses fMRI data and singe-trial electroencephalography (EEG) analyses to assess the spatial and spectral dependencies between the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) responses and the noninvasively estimated local field potentials (eLFPs) over a wide range of frequencies (0–256 Hz) throughout the entire brain volume. This method was applied in a study where human subjects completed separate fMRI and EEG sessions while performing a passive visual task. Intracranial LFPs were estimated from the scalp-recorded data using the ELECTRA source model. We compared statistical images from BOLD signals with statistical images of each frequency of the eLFPs. In agreement with previous studies in animals, we found a significant correspondence between LFP and BOLD statistical images in the gamma band (44–78 Hz) within primary visual cortices. In addition, significant correspondence was observed at low frequencies (<14 Hz) and also at very high frequencies (>100 Hz). Effects within extrastriate visual areas showed a different correspondence that not only included those frequency ranges observed in primary cortices but also additional frequencies. Results therefore suggest that the relationship between electrophysiological and hemodynamic signals thus might vary both as a function of frequency and anatomical region.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim J. Smith ◽  
John M. Henderson

Although we experience the visual world as a continuous, richly detailed space we often fail to notice large and significant changes. Such change blindness has been demonstrated for local object changes and changes to the visual form of whole images, however it is assumed that total changes from one image to another would be easily detected. Film editing presents such total changes several times a minute yet we rarely seem to be aware of them, a phenomenon we refer to here as edit blindness. This phenomenon has never been empirically demonstrated even though film editors believe they have at their disposal techniques that induce edit blindness, the Continuity Editing Rules. In the present study we tested the relationship between Continuity Editing Rules and edit blindness by instructing participants to detect edits while watching excerpts from feature films. Eye movements were recorded during the task. The results indicate that edits constructed according to the Continuity Editing Rules result in greater edit blindness than edits not adhering to the rules. A quarter of edits joining two viewpoints of the same scene were undetected and this increased to a third when the edit coincided with a sudden onset of motion. Some cuts may be missed due to suppression of the cut transients by coinciding with eyeblinks or saccadic eye movements but the majority seem to be due to inattentional blindness as viewers attend to the depicted narrative. In conclusion, this study presents the first empirical evidence of edit blindness and its relationship to natural attentional behaviour during dynamic scene viewing.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 4175-4179 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Krauzlis ◽  
F. A. Miles

1. In four human subjects, we measured the latency of saccadic eye movements made to a second, eccentric target after an initial, foveated target was extinguished. In separate interleaved trails, the targets were either both stationary (“fixation”) or both moving with the same velocity (“pursuit”). For both fixation and pursuit trials, we extinguished the first target at randomized times during maintained fixation or pursuit and varied the time interval (“gap duration”) before the appearance of the second target. 2. During both fixation and pursuit, the presence of a 200-ms gap reduced the latencies of saccades, compared with those obtained with no gap. For two subjects, we imposed additional, intermediate gap durations and found that saccade latencies varied as a function of gap duration. Furthermore, the latencies of saccades elicited during pursuit displayed the same dependence on gap duration as those elicited during fixation. 3. Our results demonstrate that the “gap effect” observed for saccades made during fixation also occurs for saccades made during pursuit. To the extent that the gap effect on saccade latency reflects a mechanism underlying the release of fixation, our results suggest that the same mechanism is invoked for saccades made during pursuit. From the viewpoint of initiating saccades, the existence of separate fixation and pursuit systems may be irrelevant.


1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 2895-2902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus G. Rottach ◽  
Vallabh E. Das ◽  
Walter Wohlgemuth ◽  
Ari Z. Zivotofsky ◽  
R. John Leigh

Rottach, Klaus G., Vallabh E. Das, Walter Wohlgemuth, Ari Z. Zivotofsky, and R. John Leigh. Properties of horizontal saccades accompanied by blinks. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 2895–2902, 1998. Using the magnetic search coil technique to record eye and lid movements, we investigated the effect of voluntary blinks on horizontal saccades in five normal human subjects. The main goal of the study was to determine whether changes in the dynamics of saccades with blinks could be accounted for by a superposition of the eye movements induced by blinks as subjects fixated a stationary target and saccadic movements made without a blink. First, subjects made voluntary blinks as they fixed on stationary targets located straight ahead or 20° to the right or left. They then made saccades between two continuously visible targets 20 or 40° apart, while either attempting not to blink, or voluntarily blinking, with each saccade. During fixation of a target located straight ahead, blinks induced brief downward and nasalward deflections of eye position. When subjects looked at targets located at right or left 20°, similar initial movements were made by four of the subjects, but the amplitude of the adducted eye was reduced by 65% and was followed by a larger temporalward movement. Blinks caused substantial changes in the dynamic properties of saccades. For 20° saccades made with blinks, peak velocity and peak acceleration were decreased by ∼20% in all subjects compared with saccades made without blinks. Blinks caused the duration of 20° saccades to increase, on average, by 36%. On the other hand, blinks had only small effects on the gain of saccades. Blinks had little influence on the relative velocities of centrifugal versus centripetal saccades, and abducting versus adducting saccades. Three of five subjects showed a significantly increased incidence of dynamic overshoot in saccades accompanied by blinks, especially for 20° movements. Taken with other evidence, this finding suggests that saccadic omnipause neurons are inhibited by blinks, which have longer duration than the saccades that company them. In conclusion, the changes in dynamic properties of saccades brought about by blinks cannot be accounted for simply by a summation of gaze perturbations produced by blinks during fixation and saccadic eye movements made without blinks. Our findings, especially the appearance of dynamic overshoots, suggest that blinks affect the central programming of saccades. These effects of blinks need to be taken into account during studies of the dynamic properties of saccades.


2005 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. J. Tehovnik ◽  
W. M. Slocum ◽  
C. E. Carvey ◽  
P. H. Schiller

The purpose of this review is to critically examine phosphene induction and saccadic eye movement generation by electrical microstimulation of striate cortex (area V1) in humans and monkeys. The following issues are addressed: 1) Properties of electrical stimulation as they pertain to the activation of V1 elements; 2) the induction of phosphenes in sighted and blind human subjects elicited by electrical stimulation using various stimulation parameters and electrode types; 3) the induction of phosphenes with electrical microstimulation of V1 in monkeys; 4) the generation of saccadic eye movements with electrical microstimulation of V1 in monkeys; and 5) the tasks involved for the development of a cortical visual prosthesis for the blind. In this review it is concluded that electrical microstimulation of area V1 in trained monkeys can be used to accelerate the development of an effective prosthetic device for the blind.


1980 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael I. Posner

Bartlett viewed thinking as a high level skill exhibiting ballistic properties that he called its “point of no return”. This paper explores one aspect of cognition through the use of a simple model task in which human subjects are asked to commit attention to a position in visual space other than fixation. This instruction is executed by orienting a covert (attentional) mechanism that seems sufficiently time locked to external events that its trajectory can be traced across the visual field in terms of momentary changes in the efficiency of detecting stimuli. A comparison of results obtained with alert monkeys, brain injured and normal human subjects shows the relationship of this covert system to saccadic eye movements and to various brain systems controlling perception and motion. In accordance with Bartlett's insight, the possibility is explored that similar principles apply to orienting of attention toward sensory input and orienting to the semantic structures used in thinking.


2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (24) ◽  
pp. 6743-6748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Hall ◽  
Carol L. Colby

A key structure for directing saccadic eye movements is the superior colliculus (SC). The visual pathways that project to the SC have been reported to carry only luminance information and not color information. Short-wavelength–sensitive cones (S-cones) in the retina make little or no contribution to luminance signals, leading to the conclusion that S-cone stimuli should be invisible to SC neurons. The premise that S-cone stimuli are invisible to the SC has been used in numerous clinical and human psychophysical studies. The assumption that the SC cannot use S-cone stimuli to guide behavior has never been tested. We show here that express saccades, which depend on the SC, can be driven by S-cone input. Further, express saccade reaction times and changes in SC activity depend on the amount of S-cone contrast. These results demonstrate that the SC can use S-cone stimuli to guide behavior. We conclude that the use of S-cone stimuli is insufficient to isolate SC function in psychophysical and clinical studies of human subjects.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Wende ◽  
Laetitia Theunissen ◽  
Marcus Missal

Causality is a unique feature of human perception. We present here a behavioral investigation of the influence of physical causality during visual pursuit of object collisions. Pursuit and saccadic eye movements of human subjects were recorded during ocular pursuit of two concurrently launched targets, one that moved according to the laws of Newtonian mechanics (the causal target) and the other one that moved in a physically implausible direction (the non-causal target). We found that anticipation of collision evoked early smooth pursuit decelerations. Saccades to non-causal targets were hypermetric and had latencies longer than saccades to causal targets. In conclusion, before and after a collision of two moving objects the oculomotor system implicitly predicts upcoming physically plausible target trajectories.


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