Recent, but not long-term, priors induce behavioral oscillations in peri-saccadic vision

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Saccadic eye movements rapidly alter visual input, yet perception remains continuous.
• Integrating sensory signals across saccades is crucial for stable visual experience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of neural oscillations in integrating pre-saccadic and current visual information.
• To understand how alpha rhythms influence perceptual memory across saccades.

Main Methods:

• Participants (N=24) viewed pre-saccadic stimuli (inducers) before voluntary saccades.
• Test stimuli were presented at varying times relative to saccade onset.
• Orientation judgments were analyzed for biases and oscillatory patterns.

Main Results:

• Judgments showed serial dependence, biased towards inducer and previous stimuli.
• Perceptual judgments oscillated at alpha frequencies (~9.5 Hz) with saccade onset.
• Oscillations correlated with serial dependence, not central tendency bias.

Conclusions:

• Alpha oscillations are involved in communicating short-term perceptual memory across saccades.
• This mechanism likely enhances visual stability during eye movements.
• Distinct neural circuits may mediate short-term and long-term perceptual memory.