Perception of suprathreshold stimuli during saccadic eye movements.
We have investigated the extent to which a graded series of suprathreshold stimuli are perceptually weakened by saccadic suppression. Stimuli were brief decrements of variable amplitude in the illumination of a Ganzfeld. For each of several decrements presented during fixation, we determined a matching amplitude of decrement presented during saccades. The measure of saccadic suppression was the ratio of these two amplitudes. The matches made by three observers exhibit ratios as high as 6:1 (0.8 log unit of suppression) near the threshold. Suppression decreases systematically as the strength of the stimulus increases, reaching 0.1 log unit or less for stimuli 2 log units above threshold.
D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics; D012438:Saccades; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*