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Trans-saccadic processing of visual and motor planning during sequential eye movements

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Abstract

How the brain maintains perceptual continuity across eye movements that yield discontinuous snapshots of the world is still poorly understood. In this study, we adapted a framework from the dual-task paradigm, well suited to reveal bottlenecks in mental processing, to study how information is processed across sequential saccades. The pattern of RTs allowed us to distinguish among three forms of trans-saccadic processing (no trans-saccadic processing, trans-saccadic visual processing and trans-saccadic visual processing and saccade planning models). Using a cued double-step saccade task, we show that even though saccade execution is a processing bottleneck, limiting access to incoming visual information, partial visual and motor processing that occur prior to saccade execution is used to guide the next eye movement. These results provide insights into how the oculomotor system is designed to process information across multiple fixations that occur during natural scanning.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Department of Science & Technology and the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. S. Ray was supported by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. We thank Dr. A. Sripati, Dr. S.J. Heinen and A. Ramakrishnan for their critical comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Brain Research Centre, Near NSG Campus, Nainwal More, Manesar, 122050, Haryana, India

    Supriya Ray, Neha Bhutani, Vishal Kapoor & Aditya Murthy

  2. The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Fransisco, CA, USA

    Supriya Ray

  3. Max Plank Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany

    Vishal Kapoor

  4. Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, Karnataka, India

    Aditya Murthy

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  1. Supriya Ray
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Correspondence to Aditya Murthy.

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Ray, S., Bhutani, N., Kapoor, V. et al. Trans-saccadic processing of visual and motor planning during sequential eye movements. Exp Brain Res 215, 13–25 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2866-x

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