Abstract
Saccadic adaptation maintains saccade accuracy and has been studied with the intrasaccadic target displacement procedure: displacing a target backwards (or forwards) during saccade execution gradually decreases (or increases) subsequent saccade amplitude. Adaptation has traditionally been studied with targeting saccades which bring the eyes onto a new object. Within-object saccades take the eye from one position in an object to another position in the same object and have been shown to resist the intrasaccadic target displacement procedure. The amplitude of within-object saccades depends on object size rather than position, and we therefore hypothesized that within-object saccades might adapt in response to an intrasaccadic change in object size. In separate sessions, we increased or decreased object size during within-object saccade execution. Results showed amplitude lengthening or shortening, respectively. Furthermore, within-object saccade adaptation seems to share several characteristics with targeting-saccade adaptation.
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Notes
When asked at the end of the experiment, only one subject reported having been aware of the change but could not decide whether it was a change in the size or in the position of the stimulus. Note that this subject’s adaptation/extinction profile was similar to that of the seven other subjects, who did not notice anything. This is an additional argument against adaptation being due to a strategy.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Sylvain Haupert and Eric Orriols for their assistance in developing the experimental software and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
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Lavergne, L., Vergilino-Perez, D., Collins, T. et al. Adaptation of within-object saccades can be induced by changing stimulus size. Exp Brain Res 203, 773–780 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2282-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2282-7