Saccadic suppression as a perceptual consequence of efficient sensorimotor estimation

Frédéric Crevecoeur,Konrad P Kording

doi:10.7554/elife.25073

Frédéric Crevecoeur, Konrad P Kording

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.25073

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Journal: eLife	Publication Date: May 2, 2017
Citations: 36	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Université Catholique de Louvain

Abstract

Humans perform saccadic eye movements two to three times per second. When doing so, the nervous system strongly suppresses sensory feedback for extended periods of time in comparison to movement time. Why does the brain discard so much visual information? Here we suggest that perceptual suppression may arise from efficient sensorimotor computations, assuming that perception and control are fundamentally linked. More precisely, we show theoretically that a Bayesian estimator should reduce the weight of sensory information around the time of saccades, as a result of signal dependent noise and of sensorimotor delays. Such reduction parallels the behavioral suppression occurring prior to and during saccades, and the reduction in neural responses to visual stimuli observed across the visual hierarchy. We suggest that saccadic suppression originates from efficient sensorimotor processing, indicating that the brain shares neural resources for perception and control.

Highlights

People skillfully combine acquired knowledge, and sensory feedback, a combination that is typically modeled using Bayesian statistics (Kording, 2007; Angelaki et al, 2009)
If we want to explore the relationship between saccadic suppression and control we need to model the underlying system
We have presented a feedback control model that assumes signal-dependent noise and delays, and uses state estimation to optimally control eye movements

Summary

Introduction

People skillfully combine acquired knowledge, and sensory feedback, a combination that is typically modeled using Bayesian statistics (Kording, 2007; Angelaki et al, 2009). This framework effectively captures behavior in numerous tasks broadly corresponding to perceptual decision-making (Ernst and Banks, 2002; van Beers et al, 1999; Fetsch et al, 2011; Drugowitsch et al, 2014; Acuna et al, 2015), or online movement control (Wolpert et al, 1995; Kording and Wolpert, 2004; Izawa and Shadmehr, 2008; Crevecoeur et al, 2016). The behavioral and neural dynamics of saccadic suppression are difficult to explain if it were purely related to compensating for shifts in the retinal image induced by saccades and by the need to maintain perceptual stability

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