Research article summary (published 19 Oct 2009):

Spatiotemporal distortions of visual perception at the time of saccades.

Full Abstract

Both space and time are grossly distorted during saccades. Here we show that the two distortions are strongly linked, and that both could be a consequence of the transient remapping mechanisms that affect visual neurons perisaccadically. We measured perisaccadic spatial and temporal distortions simultaneously by asking subjects to report both the perceived spatial location of a perisaccadic vertical bar (relative to a remembered ruler), and its perceived timing (relative to two sounds straddling the bar). During fixation and well before or after saccades, bars were localized veridically in space and in time. In different epochs of the perisaccadic interval, temporal perception was subject to different biases. At about the time of the saccadic onset, bars were temporally mislocalized 50-100 ms later than their actual presentation and spatially mislocalized toward the saccadic target. Importantly, the magnitude of the temporal distortions co-varied with the spatial localization bias and the two phenomena had similar dynamics. Within a brief period about 50 ms before saccadic onset, stimuli were perceived with shorter latencies than at other delays relative to saccadic onset, suggesting that the perceived passage of time transiently inverted its direction. Based on this result we could predict the inversion of perceived temporal order for two briefly flashed visual stimuli. We developed a model that simulates the perisaccadic transient change of neuronal receptive fields predicting well the reported temporal distortions. The key aspects of the model are the dynamics of the "remapped" activity and the use of decoder operators that are optimal during fixation, but are not updated perisaccadically.

Author information

Author/s: Binda, Paola (P); Cicchini, Guido Marco (GM); Burr, David C (DC); Morrone, M Concetta (MC);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, 20132 Milan, Italy.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Oct; vol 29 (issue 42) : pp 13147-57

Dates: Created 2009/10/22; Completed 2009/11/06;

PMID: 19846702, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation - methods Brain Mapping Humans Judgment - physiology Models, Psychological Nonlinear Dynamics Perceptual Distortion - physiology Photic Stimulation - methods

Photic Stimulation - methods Psychometrics Reaction Time - physiology Saccades - physiology Space Perception - physiology Time Factors Time Perception - physiology Vision, Ocular - physiology

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