Visual fixation of a target and suppression of optokinetic nystagmus: effects of varying target feedback

The ability to maintain foveal fixation of a target with either a stationary or moving background is often assumed to depend primarily on a difference (in velocity and/or position) between fovea and target. However, when subjects look at a target stabilized at the fovea presented against sinusoidal motion of an optokinetic stimulus field, optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) is suppressed. This suppression is not simply the absence of movement but instead most subjects show some amount of residual slow eye movements roughly counterphase to the field motion. We have varied the visual feedback of the target from 0 (stabilized) to -1 (stationary in space); as feedback increased, amplitude and phase lag of residual eye movements decreased systematically. The mechanism responsible for residual movements appears to operate for all feedback values (including the "real world" value of -1), which suggests a new view of the role played by retinal slip during fixation of a target and suppression of OKN.