Revisiting corrective saccades: Role of visual feedback

- New insights into the mechanisms of corrective saccades programming.
- The preparation of corrective saccades begins along with the primary saccades.
- Corrective saccade can occur without a subsequent visual error signal.
- The prepared correction can be updated by visual feedback.

To clarify the role of visual feedback in the generation of corrective movements after inaccurate primary saccades, we used a visually-triggered saccade task in which we varied how long the target was visible. The target was on for only 100 ms (OFF100ms), on until the start of the primary saccade (OFFonset) or on for 2 s (ON). We found that the tolerance for the post-saccadic error was small (−2%) with a visual signal (ON) but greater (−6%) without visual feedback (OFF100ms). Saccades with an error of −10%, however, were likely to be followed by corrective saccades regardless of whether or not visual feedback was present. Corrective saccades were generally generated earlier when visual error information was available; their latency was related to the size of the error. The LATER (Linear Approach to Threshold with Ergodic Rate) model analysis also showed a comparable small population of short latency corrective saccades irrespective of the target visibility. Finally, we found, in the absence of visual feedback, the accuracy of corrective saccades across subjects was related to the latency of the primary saccade. Our findings provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying the programming of corrective saccades: (1) the preparation of corrective saccades begins along with the preparation of the primary saccades, (2) the accuracy of corrective saccades depends on the reaction time of the primary saccades and (3) if visual feedback is available after the initiation of the primary saccade, the prepared correction can be updated.