Neural correlates of perisaccadic visual mislocalization in extrastriate cortex

Abstract

When interacting with the visual world using saccadic eye movements (saccades), the perceived location of visual stimuli becomes biased, a phenomenon called perisaccadic mislocalization, which is indeed an exemplar of the brains dynamic representation of the visual world. However, the neural mechanism underlying this altered visuospatial perception and its potential link to other perisaccadic perceptual phenomena have not been established. Using a combined experimental and computational approach, we were able to quantify spatial bias around the saccade target (ST) based on the perisaccadic dynamics of extrastriate spatiotemporal sensitivity captured by statistical models. This approach could predict the perisaccadic spatial bias around the ST, consistent with the psychophysical studies, and revealed the precise neuronal response components underlying representational bias. These findings also established the crucial role of response remapping toward ST representation for neurons with receptive fields far from the ST in driving the ST spatial bias. Moreover, we showed that, by allocating more resources for visual target representation, visual areas enhance their representation of the ST location, even at the expense of transient distortions in spatial representation. This potential neural basis for perisaccadic ST representation, also supports a general role for extrastriate neurons in creating the perception of stimulus location.