Abstract
Although our eyes are in constant movement, we remain unaware of the high-speed stimulation produced by the retinal displacement. Vision is drastically reduced at the time of saccades. Here, I investigated whether the reduction of the unwanted disturbance could be established through a saccade-contingent habituation to intra-saccadic displacements. In more than 100 context trials, participants were exposed either to an intra-saccadic or to a post-saccadic disturbance or to no disturbance at all. After induction of a specific context, I measured peri-saccadic suppression. Displacement discrimination thresholds of observers were high after participants were exposed to an intra-saccadic disturbance. However, after exposure to a post-saccadic disturbance or a context without any intra-saccadic stimulation, displacement discrimination improved such that observers were able to see shifts as during fixation. Saccade-contingent habituation might explain why we do not perceive trans-saccadic retinal stimulation during saccades.
Highlights
The sensorimotor contingency theory proclaims that perception consists in mastering the systematic relations between actions and their perceptual consequences (O’Regan and Noe, 2001)
Since the experiment was conducted in a dark room and the monitor screen was covered by a semitransparent foil, no visual information except the shifting grating was present during saccade execution
The results of this study clearly demonstrate that saccade suppression magnitude is strongly modulated by the recent context of intra-saccadic stimulation
Summary
The sensorimotor contingency theory proclaims that perception consists in mastering the systematic relations between actions and their perceptual consequences (O’Regan and Noe, 2001). I show that the saccadic suppression results from a habituation to intra-saccadic stimulation (see Figure 1) In this view, neurons in an extra-retinal storage mechanism will be informed by an efference copy about the initiation of a saccade, store saccade-induced visual stimulation and saturate their response to the visual information most dominant in the previous history of the last set of saccades that has been executed. Neurons in an extra-retinal storage mechanism will be informed by an efference copy about the initiation of a saccade, store saccade-induced visual stimulation and saturate their response to the visual information most dominant in the previous history of the last set of saccades that has been executed This idea predicts that suppression magnitude can be modulated by the visual context in which saccades are performed. Saccade suppression was absent if the background grating remained stationary and observers were able to perceive intra-saccadic motion as well as during fixation
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