Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction
It is commonly believed that vision is impaired during saccadic eye movements. However, here we report that some visual stimuli are clearly visible during saccades, and trigger a constriction of the eye’s pupil. Participants viewed sinusoid gratings that changed polarity 150 times per second (every...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2015-08-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/1150.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797424391225606144 |
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| author | Sebastiaan Mathôt Jean-Baptiste Melmi Eric Castet |
| author_facet | Sebastiaan Mathôt Jean-Baptiste Melmi Eric Castet |
| author_sort | Sebastiaan Mathôt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | It is commonly believed that vision is impaired during saccadic eye movements. However, here we report that some visual stimuli are clearly visible during saccades, and trigger a constriction of the eye’s pupil. Participants viewed sinusoid gratings that changed polarity 150 times per second (every 6.67 ms). At this rate of flicker, the gratings were perceived as homogeneous surfaces while participants fixated. However, the flickering gratings contained ambiguous motion: rightward and leftward motion for vertical gratings; upward and downward motion for horizontal gratings. When participants made a saccade perpendicular to the gratings’ orientation (e.g., a leftward saccade for a vertical grating), the eye’s peak velocity matched the gratings’ motion. As a result, the retinal image was approximately stable for a brief moment during the saccade, and this gave rise to an intrasaccadic percept: A normally invisible stimulus became visible when eye velocity was maximal. Our results confirm and extend previous studies by demonstrating intrasaccadic perception using a reflexive measure (pupillometry) that does not rely on subjective report. Our results further show that intrasaccadic perception affects all stages of visual processing, from the pupillary response to visual awareness. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:01:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-614dc572aa8a42d3a7bbb2c456c98926 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:01:38Z |
| publishDate | 2015-08-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
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| spelling | doaj.art-614dc572aa8a42d3a7bbb2c456c989262023-12-03T00:40:42ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592015-08-013e115010.7717/peerj.1150Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constrictionSebastiaan Mathôt0Jean-Baptiste Melmi1Eric Castet2Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR 7290, Aix-Marseille University/CNRS, Marseille, FranceLaboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR 7290, Aix-Marseille University/CNRS, Marseille, FranceLaboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR 7290, Aix-Marseille University/CNRS, Marseille, FranceIt is commonly believed that vision is impaired during saccadic eye movements. However, here we report that some visual stimuli are clearly visible during saccades, and trigger a constriction of the eye’s pupil. Participants viewed sinusoid gratings that changed polarity 150 times per second (every 6.67 ms). At this rate of flicker, the gratings were perceived as homogeneous surfaces while participants fixated. However, the flickering gratings contained ambiguous motion: rightward and leftward motion for vertical gratings; upward and downward motion for horizontal gratings. When participants made a saccade perpendicular to the gratings’ orientation (e.g., a leftward saccade for a vertical grating), the eye’s peak velocity matched the gratings’ motion. As a result, the retinal image was approximately stable for a brief moment during the saccade, and this gave rise to an intrasaccadic percept: A normally invisible stimulus became visible when eye velocity was maximal. Our results confirm and extend previous studies by demonstrating intrasaccadic perception using a reflexive measure (pupillometry) that does not rely on subjective report. Our results further show that intrasaccadic perception affects all stages of visual processing, from the pupillary response to visual awareness.https://peerj.com/articles/1150.pdfPupillometryIntrasaccadic perceptionSaccadic suppressionEye movementsExperimental psychologyVision science |
| spellingShingle | Sebastiaan Mathôt Jean-Baptiste Melmi Eric Castet Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction PeerJ Pupillometry Intrasaccadic perception Saccadic suppression Eye movements Experimental psychology Vision science |
| title | Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction |
| title_full | Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction |
| title_fullStr | Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction |
| title_short | Intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction |
| title_sort | intrasaccadic perception triggers pupillary constriction |
| topic | Pupillometry Intrasaccadic perception Saccadic suppression Eye movements Experimental psychology Vision science |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/1150.pdf |
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