Spatial frequency selectivity of visual suppression during convergence eye movements

Abstract

Visual suppression of low-spatial frequency information during eye movements is believed to contribute to a stable perception of our visual environment. While visual perception has been studied extensively during saccades, vergence has been somewhat neglected. Here, we show that convergence eye movements reduce contrast sensitivity to low spatial frequency information around the onset of the eye movements, but do not affect sensitivity to higher spatial frequencies. This suggests that visual suppression elicited by convergence eye movements may have the same temporal and spatial characteristics as saccadic suppression.

Investigation of the Relationship Between Subjective Symptoms of Visual Fatigue and Visual Functions

“…Vergence causes a rapid shift of the retina image, which causes one to neglect high spatial frequency information (Campbell and Wurtz, 1978;Burr and Ross, 1982). Suppression of low spatial frequency content takes place during convergence eye movement (i.e., vergence dynamics) (Mucke et al, 2013). This recent study agrees to what we report here, namely no correlation between vergence facility and High CSF, and the negative correlation between vergence facility and Low CSF (shown in Table 2).…”

The relationship between reflex eye realignment and the percept of single vision in young children

“…Similar to saccadic suppression 37 , vergence suppression could help maintain a stable percept of the world by reducing sensitivity to visual information during the execution of an eye movement. During the vergence movements of adults, suppression occurs from 200 ms prior to initiation until approximately 50-350 ms after [38][39][40][41][42] , with strongest suppression occurring at vergence onset. Though the development of vergence suppression has not been studied, vergence and saccadic suppression likely originate from the same central mechanism 40,42 , and children 12-14 years of age display stronger saccadic suppression than young adults 43 .…”

“…During the vergence movements of adults, suppression occurs from 200 ms prior to initiation until approximately 50-350 ms after [38][39][40][41][42] , with strongest suppression occurring at vergence onset. Though the development of vergence suppression has not been studied, vergence and saccadic suppression likely originate from the same central mechanism 40,42 , and children 12-14 years of age display stronger saccadic suppression than young adults 43 . The role of vergence suppression in the current study is not clear in that the participants were able to make consistent reports of their percepts of the targets after the 320 ms presentation, which is not consistent with suppression of perception for both eyes.…”