Competition between salience and informational value for saccade adaptation
Christian Wolf1,2, Ilja Wagner1, Alexander C Schütz1,3
1AG Allgemeine und Biologische Psychologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
Journal of Vision
|December 28, 2019
Summary
The oculomotor system can adapt saccade endpoints to prioritize informative targets when multiple stimuli compete. This adaptation helps maximize visual information intake for perception, though individual differences can influence outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Vision Science
Background:
- Visual perception is guided by eye movements (saccades).
- Inaccurate saccade target selection can degrade performance when multiple targets are present.
- Saccade adaptation is a mechanism that refines saccade accuracy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if saccade adaptation can optimize endpoint selection when faced with multiple targets.
- To determine if the oculomotor system can learn to prioritize informative targets during saccades.
Main Methods:
- A novel double-target saccade adaptation task was developed.
- Participants made horizontal saccades towards a peripheral stimulus that split into two Gabor patches.
- One target was more informative for a perceptual task, while the other was more salient.
Main Results:
- Saccade adaptation occurred, with participants adapting to the salient target when no perceptual task was imposed.
- When targets were judged sequentially, adaptation favored the first-judged target.
- Simultaneous judgments led to endpoint bias towards the informative target without gradual learning, but gradual adaptation occurred when target shifts were random.
Conclusions:
- The oculomotor system can adapt saccade endpoints to maximize perceptual information when multiple targets compete.
- Strategic adjustments are possible, but gradual adaptation is more evident when strategic control is limited.
- Individual variability and target priority significantly influence the adaptation process.
