Microsaccade rate varies with subjective visibility during motion-induced blindness.
Motion-induced blindness (MIB) occurs when a dot embedded in a motion field subjectively vanishes. Here we report the first psychophysical data concerning effects of microsaccade/eyeblink rate upon perceptual switches during MIB. We find that the rate of microsaccades/eyeblink rises before and after perceptual transitions from not seeing to seeing the dot, and decreases before perceptual transitions from seeing it to not seeing it. In addition, event-related fMRI data reveal that, when a dot subjectively reappears during MIB, the blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal increases in V1v and V2v and decreases in contralateral hMT+. These BOLD signal changes observed upon perceptual state changes in MIB could be driven by the change of perceptual states and/or a confounding factor, such as the microsaccade/eyeblink rate.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Moore Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America. pjh@mit.edu
Po-Jang
PJ
Hsieh
Peter U
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001766:Blindness; D001767:Blinking; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D009903:Optical Illusions; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011601:Psychophysics; D012160:Retina / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult