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Suppression of contrast sensitivity during eyelid blinks
1Southern California College of Optometry, Fullerton 92631.
Vision Research
|September 1, 1993
Summary
Visual suppression during blinks, like during saccades, is most pronounced for low spatial frequency stimuli. This finding suggests a shared neural mechanism underlies both blink suppression and saccadic suppression.
Area of Science:
- Vision Science
- Neuroscience
- Psychophysics
Background:
- Blinks and saccadic eye movements cause temporary vision suppression.
- Previous research suggests blink and saccadic suppression might share a common mechanism.
- Saccadic suppression is known to be more effective with low spatial frequency stimuli.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of stimulus spatial frequency on blink-induced visual suppression.
- To determine if blink suppression, like saccadic suppression, is more sensitive to low spatial frequencies.
Main Methods:
- Presented sine-wave gratings at varying times after a blink.
- Collected psychometric functions for each post-blink stimulus onset time.
- Fit Weibull functions to determine contrast sensitivity thresholds.
Main Results:
- Blink-induced contrast sensitivity suppression magnitude and duration are dependent on stimulus spatial frequency.
- The effect of spatial frequency on blink suppression mirrors that observed for saccadic suppression.
Conclusions:
- The spatial frequency dependence of blink suppression provides further evidence for a unified mechanism underlying both blink and saccadic visual suppression.
- A single neural pathway may be responsible for suppressing vision during both blinks and saccades.