Changes in horizontal oculomotor behaviour coincide with a shift in visualmotion perception

During full-field rotation of the visual field, subjects commonly experienc e an initial perception of object-motion which 'switches' to a perception o f self-motion. We studied the characteristics of the horizontal optokinetic nystagmus responses evoked by a moving visual stimulus in these two percep tual states over a range of stimulus velocities. During self-motion percept ion mean eye position was found to shift more in the direction of the newly appearing stimulus elements with a slight reduction in slow phase gain in comparison to the nystagmus evoked during object-motion perception. The res ults may reflect a modified strategy of spatial attention with increased em phasis on anticipatory eye movements during visually induced self-motion pe rception. NeuroReport 11:1987-1990 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.