Stronger premicrosaccadic sensitivity enhancement for dark contrasts in the primate superior colliculus

Abstract

Microsaccades are associated with enhanced visual perception and neural sensitivity right before their onset, and this has implications for interpreting experiments involving the covert allocation of peripheral spatial attention. However, the detailed properties of premicrosaccadic enhancement are not fully known. Here we investigated how such enhancement in the superior colliculus depends on luminance polarity. Rhesus macaque monkeys fixated a small spot while we presented either dark or bright image patches of different contrasts within the recorded neurons’ response fields. Besides replicating premicrosaccadic enhancement of visual sensitivity, we observed stronger enhancement for dark contrasts. This was especially true at moderate contrast levels (such as 20%), and it occurred independent of an individual neuron’s preference for either darks or brights. On the other hand, postmicrosaccadic visual sensitivity suppression was similar for either luminance polarity. Our results reveal an intriguing asymmetry in the properties of perimicrosaccadic modulations of superior colliculus visual neural sensitivity.