TY - JOUR
T1 - Presaccadic Attention Enhances and Reshapes the Contrast Sensitivity Function Differentially around the Visual Field
AU - Kwak, Yuna
AU - Zhao, Yukai
AU - Lu, Zhong Lin
AU - Hanning, Nina Maria
AU - Carrasco, Marisa
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Kwak et al.
PY - 2024/9
Y1 - 2024/9
N2 - Contrast sensitivity (CS), which constrains human vision, decreases from fovea to periphery, from the horizontal to the vertical meridian, and from the lower vertical to the upper vertical meridian. It also depends on spatial frequency (SF), and the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) depicts this relation. To compensate for these visual constraints, we constantly make saccades and foveate on relevant objects in the scene. Already before saccade onset, presaccadic attention shifts to the saccade target and enhances perception. However, it is unknown whether and how it modulates the interplay between CS and SF, and if this effect varies around polar angle meridians. CS enhancement may result from a horizontal or vertical shift of the CSF, increase in bandwidth, or any combination. In addition, presaccadic attention could enhance CS similarly around the visual field, or it could benefit perception more at locations with poorer performance (i.e., vertical meridian). Here, we investigated these possibilities by extracting key attributes of the CSF of human observers. The results reveal that presaccadic attention (1) increases CS across SF, (2) increases the most preferred and the highest discernable SF, and (3) narrows the bandwidth. Therefore, presaccadic attention helps bridge the gap between presaccadic and postsaccadic input by increasing visibility at the saccade target. Counterintuitively, this CS enhancement was more pronounced where perception is better—along the horizontal than the vertical meridian—exacerbating polar angle asymmetries. Our results call for an investigation of the differential neural modulations underlying presaccadic perceptual changes for different saccade directions.
AB - Contrast sensitivity (CS), which constrains human vision, decreases from fovea to periphery, from the horizontal to the vertical meridian, and from the lower vertical to the upper vertical meridian. It also depends on spatial frequency (SF), and the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) depicts this relation. To compensate for these visual constraints, we constantly make saccades and foveate on relevant objects in the scene. Already before saccade onset, presaccadic attention shifts to the saccade target and enhances perception. However, it is unknown whether and how it modulates the interplay between CS and SF, and if this effect varies around polar angle meridians. CS enhancement may result from a horizontal or vertical shift of the CSF, increase in bandwidth, or any combination. In addition, presaccadic attention could enhance CS similarly around the visual field, or it could benefit perception more at locations with poorer performance (i.e., vertical meridian). Here, we investigated these possibilities by extracting key attributes of the CSF of human observers. The results reveal that presaccadic attention (1) increases CS across SF, (2) increases the most preferred and the highest discernable SF, and (3) narrows the bandwidth. Therefore, presaccadic attention helps bridge the gap between presaccadic and postsaccadic input by increasing visibility at the saccade target. Counterintuitively, this CS enhancement was more pronounced where perception is better—along the horizontal than the vertical meridian—exacerbating polar angle asymmetries. Our results call for an investigation of the differential neural modulations underlying presaccadic perceptual changes for different saccade directions.
KW - contrast sensitivity
KW - contrast sensitivity function
KW - perceptual asymmetries
KW - polar angle
KW - presaccadic attention
KW - saccade
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U2 - 10.1523/ENEURO.0243-24.2024
DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0243-24.2024
M3 - Article
C2 - 39197949
AN - SCOPUS:85204166889
SN - 2373-2822
VL - 11
JO - eNeuro
JF - eNeuro
IS - 9
M1 - ENEURO.0243-24.2024
ER -