The effect of stimulus blanking on the detection of intrasaccadic displacements of translating objects

In a display with a stationary and a translating object, subjects made a saccade towards one of the objects and had to detect intrasaccadic changes in the position of either the saccade target or the saccade flanker. Sensitivity for displacements of the stationary and moving objects was measured in conditions with (60 and 220 ms) and without blanking. In the conditions without blanking, displacement detection for translating objects was better than detection for stationary objects, which confirmed previous results (Vis. Res. 42 (2002) 379). This pattern was reversed in the blanking conditions: Sensitivity for intrasaccadic displacements of the translating object decreased drastically in comparison to conditions without a blank and was even lower than sensitivity for the stationary object. The results suggest differences in the transsaccadic spatial representation of translating and stationary objects. While a change in the spatial position of a stationary object can be detected after a blank period of 60 and 220 ms, this seems impossible for a translating object, indicating timing differences in postsaccadic spatial localization processes. Accounts in terms of a fast and accurate motion processing mechanism that possibly makes use of gain control are discussed.