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Extrafoveal preview benefit during free-viewing visual search in the monkey
B Suresh Krishna1, Anna E Ipata, James W Bisley
1Mahoney-Keck Center for Brain and Behavior Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
Journal of Vision
|January 10, 2014
Summary
Monkeys show an extrafoveal preview benefit, processing visual stimuli faster after eye movements (saccades) when the stimulus was previously seen in peripheral vision. This suggests visual information transfers across saccades, aiding search tasks.
Area of Science:
- Visual perception
- Primate cognition
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Previous studies demonstrate an extrafoveal preview benefit in humans, where peripheral viewing before a saccade speeds foveal processing.
- This benefit implies successful transfer of visual form information across saccades.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate and characterize the extrafoveal preview benefit in non-human primates during a visual search task.
- To determine if visual information transfer across saccades is conserved in monkeys.
Main Methods:
- Two monkeys were trained on a free-viewing visual search task, reporting target orientation via bar release.
- Eye movements (saccades) were monitored during the task.
- Performance was analyzed based on the proximity of the target to the fovea during the preceding fixation.
Main Results:
- Monkeys exhibited an extrafoveal preview benefit, showing faster target identification when the target was closer to the fovea during the prior fixation.
- This benefit persisted even with multiple intervening saccades between preview and fixation.
- An extrafoveal preview benefit was also observed for distractor stimuli.
Conclusions:
- The findings demonstrate a conserved extrafoveal preview benefit in monkeys, supporting cross-saccadic visual information transfer.
- This benefit aids visual search efficiency and is robust to multiple saccades and distractor presence.
- The results provide a foundation for future physiological studies on the neural mechanisms underlying the extrafoveal preview benefit.
