Time compression of visual perception around microsaccades

Abstract

Even during fixation, our eyes are in constant motion. For example, microsaccades are small (typically <1°) eye movements that occur 1~3 times/second. Despite their tiny and transient nature, our percept of visual space is compressed before microsaccades (Hafed ZM, Lovejoy LP, Krauzlis RJ. Eur J Neurosci 37: 1169-1181, 2013). As visual space and time are interconnected at both the physical and physiological levels, we asked whether microsaccades also affect the temporal aspects of visual perception. Here we demonstrate that the perceived interval between transient visual stimuli was compressed if accompanied by microsaccades. This temporal compression extended approximately ±200 ms from microsaccade occurrence, and depending on their particular pattern, multiple microsaccades further enhanced or counteracted this temporal compression. The compression of time surrounding microsaccades resembles that associated with more voluntary macrosaccades (Morrone MC, Ross J, Burr D. Nat Neurosci 8: 950-954, 2005). Our results suggest common neural processes underlying both saccade and microsaccade misperceptions, mediated, likely, through extraretinal mechanisms. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Here we show that humans perceive the duration of visual events as compressed if they are accompanied by microsaccades. Despite the tiny and transient nature of microsaccades, time compression extended more than ±200 ms from their occurrence. Moreover, the number, pattern, and temporal coincidence of microsaccades relative to visual events all contribute to this time misperception. Our results reveal a detailed picture of how our visual time percepts are altered by microsaccades.