Abstract
Subjects tend to mislocalize a perisaccadic target-flash presented in the dark (Honda, 1991; Matin & Pearce, 1965). It is often suggested that a primary reason for this perceptual phenomenon is an extraretinal (exR) signal that changes before, during and after the saccade. However, Pola (2004, 2007) proposed that such mislocalization is not simply the effect of a time-varying exR signal, but is a consequence of flash retinal (R) signal persistence interacting with the exR signal. A number of studies have shown that flash mislocalization can be substantially influenced by the presence of background stimuli (e.g., Lappe, Awater & Krekelberg, 2000; Maij, Brenner & Smeets, 2008; Matin, 1976). To explore the role of such stimuli, a R-exR model was used to simulate data from an experiment conducted by Matin (1976). A principle virtue of Matin's experiment, from the perspective of modeling, is that the perisaccadic flash occurred either in complete darkness or in darkness with a simple background stimulus (a small, stationary target) present throughout and after the saccade. The model simulation indicates that flash R signal persistence is substantially involved in the difference between the features of flash mislocalization in the dark and with the background stimulus. Essentially, the model suggests that just as R signal persistence interacting with the exR signal produces mislocalization in the dark, the persistence, interacting with the background stimulus as well as the exR signal, accounts for some of the main features of mislocalization with the background. These findings, together with earlier results (Pola, 2004, 2007) show that R signal persistence can influence flash mislocalization in a wide range of visual circumstances: i.e., in the dark, with sequential stimuli, and with a variety of background stimuli.