Sub-cone visual acuity can be achieved with less than 1 arcmin retinal slip.

Area of Science:

• Vision science
• Neuroscience
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Visual acuity depends on photoreceptor sampling and eye movements.
• Fixational eye movements continuously shift the retinal image, engaging more photoreceptors over time.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the minimum retinal image motion required to improve visual acuity.
• To investigate the relationship between stimulus duration, retinal slip, and visual acuity.

Main Methods:

• Adaptive optics micro-psychophysical techniques were used to record the photoreceptor mosaic.
• Participants performed a Tumbling-E visual acuity task with varying stimulus durations (3-600 ms).
• Retinal slip amplitude and visual acuity thresholds were measured.

Main Results:

• Retinal slip increased linearly with stimulus duration.
• Visual acuity improved significantly by 80 ms, corresponding to ~2 cone diameters of retinal slip.
• Further improvements in acuity were observed with longer durations, reaching sub-cone precision.

Conclusions:

• Humans can achieve sub-cone precision in visual information extraction within 100 ms.
• Retinal slip approaching single cone spacing is sufficient to significantly enhance visual acuity.
• The findings highlight the dynamic interplay between eye movements and visual perception.