The psychophysics of the pursuit oculomotor system.
When a fixation point moves under a row of identical targets at a speed of one target for each flash of a strobe, smooth apparent movement of the targets is seen (the "picket-fence illusion"). When the fixation point is removed, the eye continues to pursue the apparent target movement. Pursuit continues through small changes in target configuration, but is interrupted by a change to a very dissimilar target (such as 1 vs. x) in the middle of a row. This new method, the "pursuit-interruption method," showed that large differences in the number of pixels in a line did not interrupt tracking if the end points of the line were preserved. Pursuit interruption by changes in line orientation (such as /vs./) corresponded to the orientation bandwidth of orientation-sensitive cortical neurons. The maximum number of consecutive missing targets that does not interrupt pursuit depends on frequency of target presentation as well as on parameters of the pursuit system.
B
B
Bridgeman
D001288:Attention; D005133:Eye Movements; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception; D009903:Optical Illusions; D009949:Orientation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011601:Psychophysics; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth