Saccade landing point does not affect transsaccadic integration

Abstract

In transsaccadic integration visual information, obtained before and after an eye movement, is combined. Since saccade landing point is very variable, transsaccadic integration needs to be a robust system for it to work in facilitating visual perception. When two stimuli are present, saccade landing point usually lands somewhere intermediate of the two; a phenomenon called the global effect. However, attention does not seem to follow a similar path. Attention might be goal dependent, thereby able to withstand visual noise. To investigate the robustness of transsaccadic integration, a global effect paradigm was used; alongside a target a salient distracter was displayed. Results indicate that the presence of a distracter does not influence the sensitivity to visual information in transsaccadic integration trials. Saccade latency was also investigated; the presence of a distracter elicited a faster eye movement, as compared to eye movements in the absence of a distracter. In conclusion, transsaccadic integration seems to be a robust mechanism that is not affected by saccade landing point. Saccade latency on the other hand, is influenced by the prominence of a stimulus.