Sounds are remapped across saccades

Szinte, Martin ; Aagten-Murphy, David; Jonikaitis, Donatas; Wollenberg, Luca and Deubel, Heiner (December 2020): Sounds are remapped across saccades. In: Scientific Reports, Vol. 10, 21332: pp. 1-11

Abstract

To achieve visual space constancy, our brain remaps eye-centered projections of visual objects across saccades. Here, we measured saccade trajectory curvature following the presentation of visual, auditory, and audiovisual distractors in a double-step saccade task to investigate if this stability mechanism also accounts for localized sounds. We found that saccade trajectories systematically curved away from the position at which either a light or a sound was presented, suggesting that both modalities are represented in eye-centered oculomotor centers. Importantly, the same effect was observed when the distractor preceded the execution of the first saccade. These results suggest that oculomotor centers keep track of visual, auditory and audiovisual objects by remapping their eye-centered representations across saccades. Furthermore, they argue for the existence of a supra-modal map which keeps track of multi-sensory object locations across our movements to create an impression of space constancy.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Psychology and Education Science > Department Psychology > General and Experimental Psychology
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 150 Psychology
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• Language: English