Influence of Spatio-Temporal Frequency of Dynamic Textures on Fixational Eye Movement in Central and Peripheral Vision

Abstract

Our eyes move slightly and rapidly, even while we gaze at an object. If fixational eye movement is inhibited, visual objects begin to fade until we ultimately cannot see them at all. Involuntary fixational eye movement is essential for the acquisition of visual information, as neurons become inactive when exposed to continuous homogeneous visual stimuli. Involuntary fixational eye movement is believed to be generated by random neural activation. In this study, we focused on the other role of eye movement. It is supposed that fixational eye movement is affected by perception of a visual stimulus. Thus, involuntary fixational eye movement might be controlled by perception. We measured subjects’ fixational eye movement while dynamic textures with limited spatio-temporal frequency were presented to their central or peripheral visual field. Results indicated that recorded fixational eye movements are influenced by the spatio-temporal frequency sensitivity of vision. The higher frequency component of the fixational eye movement in both central and in peripheral vision increases when the dynamic texture of a stimulus has a spatio-temporal frequency of a higher visual sensitivity.