Elsevier

Vision Research

Volume 46, Issue 22, October 2006, Pages 3886-3897
Vision Research

The spatio-temporal tuning of the mechanisms in the control of saccadic eye movements

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2006.06.012Get rights and content
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Abstract

We compared the spatio-temporal tuning of perception to the mechanisms that drive saccadic eye movements. Detection thresholds were measured for Gabor-targets presented left or right of fixation (4 or 8 deg eccentricity), at one of four spatial frequencies (1, 2, 4 or 8 cpd) oscillating at one of three temporal frequencies (1, 8 or 16 Hz). We then measured saccade latency to each target presented at various multiples of detection threshold. Consistent with previous research, latency decreased as a function of contrast. However, at equal detection performance, we found no systematic difference in saccadic latency and no difference in average oculometric performance (% correct saccade direction) across the different target spatio-temporal frequencies. Furthermore, position error remained fairly constant across all conditions. The results are consistent with the idea that the spatio-temporal signals used for perception are the same as those used by the mechanisms driving saccadic eye movements.

Keywords

Saccade latency
Spatio-temporal tuning
Temporal frequency
Spatial frequency
Contrast sensitivity

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