Open AccessClosed loop motor-sensory dynamics in human vision
Author(s) -
Liron Zipora Gruber,
Ehud Ahissar
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0240660
Subject(s) - saccadic masking , kinematics , computer science , computer vision , saccade , sensory system , artificial intelligence , eye movement , smooth pursuit , visual perception , motion perception , perception , motion (physics) , neuroscience , psychology , physics , classical mechanics
Vision is obtained with a continuous motion of the eyes. The kinematic analysis of eye motion, during any visual or ocular task, typically reveals two (kinematic) components: saccades , which quickly replace the visual content in the retinal fovea, and drifts , which slowly scan the image after each saccade . While the saccadic exchange of regions of interest (ROIs) is commonly considered to be included in motor-sensory closed-loops, it is commonly assumed that drifts function in an open-loop manner, that is, independent of the concurrent visual input. Accordingly, visual perception is assumed to be based on a sequence of open-loop processes, each initiated by a saccade -triggered retinal snapshot. Here we directly challenged this assumption by testing the dependency of drift kinematics on concurrent visual inputs using real-time gaze-contingent-display. Our results demonstrate a dependency of the trajectory on the concurrent visual input, convergence of speed to condition-specific values and maintenance of selected drift -related motor-sensory controlled variables, all strongly indicative of drifts being included in a closed-loop brain-world process, and thus suggesting that vision is inherently a closed-loop process.