Image statistics at the point of gaze during human navigation

Theories of efficient sensory processing have considered the regularities of image properties due to the structure of the environment in order to explain properties of neuronal representations of the visual world. The regularities imposed on the input to the visual system due to the regularities of the active selection process mediated by the voluntary movements of the eyes have been considered to a much lesser degree. This is surprising, given that the active nature of vision is well established. The present article investigates statistics of image features at the center of gaze of human subjects navigating through a virtual environment and avoiding and approaching different objects. The analysis shows that contrast can be significantly higher or lower at fixation location compared to random locations, depending on whether subjects avoid or approach targets. Similarly, significant differences in the distribution of responses of model simple and complex cells between horizontal and vertical orientations are found over timescales of tens of seconds. By clustering the model simple cell responses, it is established that gaze was directed toward three distinct features of intermediate complexity the vast majority of time. Thus, this study demonstrates and quantifies how the visuomotor tasks of approaching and avoiding objects during navigation determine feature statistics of the input to the visual system through the combined influence on body and eye movements.