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Article
How does saccade adaptation affect visual perception?
Journal of vision (2008)
  • Teresa D Hernandez
  • Carmel Levitan, Occidental College
  • Martin S Banks
  • Clifton M Schor
Abstract
Three signals are used to visually localize targets and stimulate saccades: (1) retinal location signals for intended saccade amplitude, (2) sensory-motor transform (SMT) of retinal signals to extra-ocular muscle innervation, and (3) estimates of eye position from extra-retinal signals. We investigated effects of adapting saccade amplitude to a double-step change in target location on perceived direction. In a flashed-pointing task, subjects pointed an unseen hand at a briefly displayed eccentric target without making a saccade. In a sustained-pointing task, subjects made a horizontal saccade to a double-step target. One second after the second step, they pointed an unseen hand at the final target position. After saccade-shortening adaptation, there was little change in hand-pointing azimuth toward the flashed target suggesting that most saccade adaptation was caused by changes in the SMT. After saccade-lengthening adaptation, there were small changes in hand-pointing azimuth to flashed targets, indicating that 1/3 of saccade adaptation was caused by changes in estimated retinal location signals and 2/3 by changes in the SMT. The sustained hand-pointing task indicated that estimates of eye position adapted inversely with changes of the SMT. Changes in perceived direction resulting from saccade adaptation are mainly influenced by extra-retinal factors with a small retinal component in the lengthening condition.
Publication Date
June 2, 2008
Citation Information
Teresa D Hernandez, Carmel Levitan, Martin S Banks and Clifton M Schor. "How does saccade adaptation affect visual perception?" Journal of vision Vol. 8 Iss. 8 (2008)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/carmel_levitan/4/