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Updated: Mar 31, 2026
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Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss
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Adaptive rightward gaze shifts support configural object recognition during perceptual challenge
Emanuela L Dan1,2, Ioana Țincaș1, Cécile Gal1,3
1Department of Experimental and Theoretical Neuroscience, Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience, Cluj-Napoca 400157, Romania.
Iscience
|March 30, 2026
Summary
Gaze shifts rightward when visual processing demands rise, aiding object and face recognition. This adaptive strategy optimizes visual exploration, especially under challenging conditions like low visibility.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Ophthalmology
Background:
- Gaze lateralization, the preferential looking to one visual hemifield, is a known phenomenon in human vision.
- Previous research suggests biases in visual exploration, but the dynamic interplay with perceptual demands remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate gaze lateralization during object and face recognition under varying spatial frequency information.
- To explore how perceptual demands influence gaze direction and visual exploration strategies.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Dots stimuli to isolate configural information and control sensory evidence.
- Recorded eye movements during free-viewing and time-restricted exploration tasks.
- Manipulated stimulus visibility, ambiguity, and task demands across four experiments.
Main Results:
- Gaze reliably shifted toward the right visual hemifield as perceptual demands increased, indicating reduced leftward bias or rightward lateralization.
- This rightward shift was amplified by lower visibility, intrinsic ambiguity, and higher task demands.
- Rightward gaze shifts were dynamically modulated by sensory evidence and stimulus familiarity in free viewing, and emerged rapidly in time-restricted viewing.
Conclusions:
- Rightward gaze shifts represent flexible, adaptive strategies employed to enhance configural visual processing.
- These findings highlight the brain's dynamic optimization of visual exploration based on task demands and sensory input.
- Exploration dynamics differed for faces versus objects, but lateralization remained consistent across face types.
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