Interpretive Study of Evoked Responses Elicted by Gross Saccadic Eye Movements

A model of visual perception is outlined in which the sudden shifts of the retina caused by saccadic (jumping) eye movements generate discrete, discontinuous packages or units of information which are transmitted to the cortex as evoked responses. An experiment is described where gross saccadic eye movements across a particular stimulus generate saccade-linked evoked responses whose amplitudes reflect the on vs off, left vs right, and size-of-eye-movement qualities of their particular eye movements. The results are consistent with the idea that evoked responses carry information. Some further implications of the model are discussed.