Presaccadic preview shapes postsaccadic processing more where perception is poor

Xiaoyi Liu, David Melcher, Marisa Carrasco, Nina M. Hanning

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The presaccadic preview of a peripheral target enhances the efficiency of its postsaccadic processing, termed the extrafoveal preview effect. Peripheral visual performance—and thus the quality of the preview—varies around the visual field, even at isoeccentric locations: It is better along the horizontal than vertical meridian and along the lower than upper vertical meridian. To investigate whether these polar angle asymmetries influence the preview effect, we asked human participants to preview four tilted gratings at the cardinals, until a central cue indicated which one to saccade to. During the saccade, the target orientation either remained or slightly changed (valid/invalid preview). After saccade landing, participants discriminated the orientation of the (briefly presented) second grating. Stimulus contrast was titrated with adaptive staircases to assess visual performance. Expectedly, valid previews increased participants’ postsaccadic contrast sensitivity. This preview benefit, however, was inversely related to polar angle perceptual asymmetries; largest at the upper, and smallest at the horizontal meridian. This finding reveals that the visual system compensates for peripheral asymmetries when integrating information across saccades, by selectively assigning higher weights to the less-well perceived preview information. Our study supports the recent line of evidence showing that perceptual dynamics around saccades vary with eye movement direction.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere2411293121
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume121
Issue number37
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 10 2024

Keywords

  • eye movement programming
  • peripheral vision
  • transsaccadic perception
  • visual continuity
  • visual field asymmetries

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Presaccadic preview shapes postsaccadic processing more where perception is poor'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this