Does perisaccadic compression require foveal vision? M Matziridi1, M Hartendorp2, E Brenner1, J B Smeets1 |
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1Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| People make systematic errors when localizing a stimulus that is presented briefly near the time of the saccade. These errors have been interpreted as a compression towards the fixation position at the end of the saccade. Normally, the fixation location is the position that falls on the fovea. Macular Degeneration (MD) damages the central retina often obliterating foveal vision. MD patients typically adopt a new retinal locus for fixation, in the periphery, called the preferred retinal locus (PRL). If the compression of space during the saccade is a special characteristic of the fovea, perhaps due to the high density of cones that is found in the fovea, one might expect people lacking central vision to show no compression of space around the time of a saccade. If the compression of space is related to fixation, one might expect similar compression towards the PRL, despite the lack of a high density of cones in this area. We found that a MD patient showed a clear compression towards the PRL. We conclude that perisaccadic compression does not require a high density of receptors in the fovea. |
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