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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Using Saccadometry with Deep Brain Stimulation to Study Normal and Pathological Brain Function
Published on: July 14, 2016
Saccades actively maintain perceptual continuity
1School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Abstract:
People make saccades--rapid eye movements to a new fixation--approximately three times per second. This would seemingly disrupt perceptual continuity, yet our brains construct a coherent, stable view of the world from these successive fixations. There is conflicting evidence regarding the effects of saccades on perceptual continuity: some studies report that they are disruptive, with little information carryover between saccades; others report that carryover is substantial. Here we show that saccades actively contribute to perceptual continuity in humans in two different ways. When bistable stimuli are presented intermittently, saccades executed during the blank interval shorten the duration of states of ambiguous figures, indicating that saccades can erase immediately past perceptual states. On the other hand, they prolong the McCollough effect, indicating that saccades strengthen learned contingencies. Our results indicate that saccades help, rather than hinder, perceptual continuity.
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