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Neural mechanisms and functional signficance of peri-saccadic response modulation
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Guez, Jonathan Simon. Neural mechanisms and functional signficance of peri-saccadic response modulation. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3WW7KPS

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TitleNeural mechanisms and functional signficance of peri-saccadic response modulation
NameGuez, Jonathan Simon (author); Golowasch, Jorge (chair); Pare, Denis (internal member); Rotstein, Horacio (internal member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - Newark
Date Created2015
Other Date2015-10 (degree)
SubjectNeuroscience, Vision, Saccadic eye movements
Extent1 online resource (viii, 93 p. : ill.)
DescriptionActive vision involves fast eye movements (saccades) with brief inter-saccadic fixations. This presents two interesting problems. (1) During each saccade the moving eye creates motion signals on the retina, and yet we are unaware of this sweeping visual input. (2) Upon each brief fixation the visual system is input with a new scene, and tasked to quickly encode many stimulus features. Regarding the first problem, a decrease in contrast sensitivity during saccades (saccadic suppression) is thought to contribute to our lack of intra-saccadic perception. Chapters 2 & 3 of this thesis seek to further understand the neural mechanisms of saccadic suppression. Regarding the second problem, a post-saccadic change in neural activity is thought to specialize processing of newly fixated stimuli. Chapter 4 investigates the changes in visual response properties that occur after a saccade. Chapter 2 used a signal-detection model that describes the psychophysical phenomenon of saccadic suppression in computational terms. The model is built up of visual detectors in which gain, noise, and spatial uncertainty can be varied. Thus saccadic suppression is recast in terms that provide testable predictions of neural activities. We found that saccadic suppression is the result of reduced detector gain. Chapter 3 studied neural responses from permanently implanted multi-electrode arrays in V1 of macaques. Based on our Chapter 2 results, we looked specifically at how contrast responses change during saccades. We found saccadic gain reduction that begins before saccade onset, suggesting that V1 is a neural site of suppression, and that saccadic gain reduction is the result of a corollary discharge signal. Chapter 4 studied the effect of post-saccadic modulation on contrast response properties. Using model fitting and signal detection measures, we showed that post-saccadic modulations in V1 lead to an increased range of discriminable contrasts. We argue that this increased operating range gives a functional benefit when encountering newly fixated stimuli. Chapter 5 concludes by relating the saccadic gain reduction shown in Chapters 2 & 3 to the post-saccadic response changes shown in Chapter 4 – arguing that saccadic suppression can be viewed as part of a more general process to improve post-saccadic vision.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Jonathan Simon Guez
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3WW7KPS
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - Newark Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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