QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

The Journal of Neuroscience, May 31, 2006, 26(22):5965-5969; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0817-06.2006

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental data Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in J. Neurosci. Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (10) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Vallines, I. Articles by Greenlee, M. W. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Vallines, I. Articles by Greenlee, M. W. Pubmed/NCBI databases Compound via MeSH Substance via MeSH Hazardous Substances DB OXYGEN

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Saccadic Suppression of Retinotopically Localized Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent Responses in Human Primary Visual Area V1

Ignacio Vallines^1,2 and Mark W. Greenlee¹

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Regensburg, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany, and ²Department of Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, D-80802 Munich, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Ignacio Vallines, Department of Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Leopoldstrasse 13, D-80802 Munich, Germany. Email: vallines{at}lmu.de

Saccadic eye movements are responsible for bringing relevant parts of the visual field onto the fovea for detailed analysis. Because the retina is physiologically unable to deliver sharp images at very high transsaccadic speeds, the visual system minimizes the repercussion of the blurry images we would otherwise perceive during transsaccadic vision by reducing general visual sensitivity and increasing the detection threshold for visual stimuli. Ruling out a pure retinal origin, the effects of saccadic suppression can be already observed some 75 ms before the onset of a saccadic eye movement and are maximal at the onset of motion. The perception of a briefly presented stimulus immediately before the onset of any retinal motion is thus impaired despite the fact that this stimulus is projected onto the stationary retina and is, therefore, physically identical to that presented when no saccadic programming is in course. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging event-related study, we flashed Gabor patches at different times before the onset of a horizontal saccade and measured blood oxygen level-dependent responses at their encoding regions in primary visual cortex (V1) while subjects judged the relative orientation of the stimuli. Closely matching the significant reduction in behavioral performance, the amplitude of the responses in V1 consistently decreased as the stimuli were presented closer to the saccadic onset. These results demonstrate that the neural processes underlying saccade programming transiently modulate cortical responses to briefly presented visual stimuli in areas as early a V1, providing additional evidence for the existence of an active saccadic suppression mechanism in humans.

Key words: saccade; vision; cortex; eye movement; fMRI; striate cortex; saccadic suppression; V1; retinotopy

---

Received Oct. 6, 2005; revised April 21, 2006; accepted April 21, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Ignacio Vallines, Department of Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Leopoldstrasse 13, D-80802 Munich, Germany. Email: vallines{at}lmu.de

Related articles in J. Neurosci.:

This Week in The Journal

J. Neurosci. 2006 26: i. [Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. Bremmer, M. Kubischik, K.-P. Hoffmann, and B. Krekelberg Neural Dynamics of Saccadic Suppression J. Neurosci., October 7, 2009; 29(40): 12374 - 12383. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help