The Influence of Gaze Control on Visual Perception: Eye Movements and Visual Stability.

Primates make several saccadic eye movements each second, and yet the retinal motion these movements generate goes unnoticed. Saccadic suppression is a profound loss of visual sensitivity occurring around the time of eye movements, and it is thought to contribute to visual stability by blunting the perception of self-generated motion. Neurophysiological studies have produced evidence that neurons throughout the visual system, including both the dorsal and ventral streams of extrastriate visual cortex, show a reduction in visual responses or sensitivity around the time of saccades. However, the source of this suppression remains unknown. We review evidence that oculomotor regions such as the superior colliculus and frontal eye field may play a role, as well as anatomical data that place constraints on possible mechanisms of suppression.