title: Distorted object perception following whole-field adaptation of saccadic eye movements.
abstract: The adaptation of an observer's saccadic eye movements to artificial post-saccadic visual error can lead to perceptual mislocalization of individual, transient visual stimuli. In this study, we demonstrate that simultaneous saccadic adaptation to a consistent error pattern across a large number of saccade vectors is accompanied by corresponding spatial distortions in the perception of persistent objects. To induce this adaptation, we artificially introduced several post-saccadic error patterns, which led to a systematic distortion in participants' oculomotor space and a corresponding distortion in their perception of the relative dimensions of a cross-figure. The results indicate a tight coupling between the oculomotor and visual-perceptual spaces that is not limited to misperception of individual visual locations but also affects metrics in the visual-perceptual space. This coupling suggests that our visual perception is continuously recalibrated by the post-saccadic error signal.
authors.affiliation: University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125-3393, USA. tgaraas@gmail.com
authors.forename: Tyler W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Garaas
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pomplun
mesh_terms: D000221:Adaptation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*