A Sensory Memory to Preserve Visual Representations Across Eye Movements

Abstract

During eye movements, the continuous flow of visual information is frequently disrupted due to abrupt changes of the retinal image, yet our perception of the visual world is uninterrupted. In order to identify the neuronal response components necessary for the integration of perception across eye movements, we developed a computational model to trace the changes in the visuospatial sensitivity of neurons in the extrastriate cortex of macaque monkeys with high temporal precision. Employing the model, we examined the perceptual implications of these changes and found that by maintaining a memory of the visual scene, extrastriate neurons produce an uninterrupted representation of the visual world. These results reveal how our brain exploits available information to maintain the sense of vision in the absence of visual information.