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Motion perception during saccadic eye movements

Nature Neuroscience volume 3, pages 177–183 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

During rapid eye movements, motion of the stationary world is generally not perceived despite displacement of the whole image on the retina. Here we report that during saccades, human observers sensed visual motion of patterns with low spatial frequency. The effect was greatest when the stimulus was spatiotemporally optimal for motion detection by the magnocellular pathway. Adaptation experiments demonstrated dependence of this intrasaccadic motion percept on activation of direction-selective mechanisms. Even two-dimensional complex motion percepts requiring spatial integration of early motion signals were observed during saccades. These results indicate that the magnocellular pathway functions during saccades, and that only spatiotemporal limitations of visual motion perception are important in suppressing awareness of intrasaccadic motion signals.

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Figure 1: Motion perception during a saccade in the same direction as a high-speed vertical grating (10% contrast).
Figure 2: Temporal tuning of motion perception.
Figure 3: Direction discrimination experiment.
Figure 4: Direction-selective adaptation.
Figure 5: Perceived direction of two-dimensional motion.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. S. Stone, M. J. Morgan, J. K. O'Regan and A. Riehle for comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (CRNC), UPR 9012 du CNRS31, chemin J. Aiguier 13402, Marseille, Cedex 20, France

    Eric Castet & Guillaume S. Masson

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Correspondence to Eric Castet.

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Castet, E., Masson, G. Motion perception during saccadic eye movements. Nat Neurosci 3, 177–183 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/72124

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