Eye Movements and Visual Perception

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): With every eye movement, the world sweeps across our retina and appears in a new position. Healthy humans, however, usually remain blissfully unaware of this, and perceive the world as stable. The long term goal of this project is to answer the fundamental unsolved question: how does the brain transform the ever-changing retinal input into a stable percept of the world? To further the mission of the National Eye Institute to research the mechanisms of visual function, the project will investigate this fundamental question using behavioral, electrophysiological, and computational methods. The first aim of the project is to determine the robustness and stability of eye position signals in primary visual cortex. The second aim is to determine whether these signals are causally related to the perception of position. The third aim is to understand how the rapid movements created by our eyes are hidden from awareness, and to determine where in visual cortex this mechanism is implemented. The fourth aim is to understand what happens to visual information processing at the time of a rapid eye movement; does processing start anew with every eye movement, or is there transfer and integration of the information on the details of the visual scene?