Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PLATYPUS (PLAsticiTY of Perceptual space Under Sensorimotor interactions)
Reporting period: 2017-07-01 to 2019-06-30
The blind spot, an area of the retina that cannot receive any visual input is used in Platypus as a tool to infer infer dynamical properties of the perceptual map. Being devoid of visual input, the blind spot provides one of the clearest and simplest examples of the difference between physical and perceptual space: we do not experience a gap in perception due to filled-in contextual information from around its border. Platypus will characterize the neuronal mechanisms of maintaining space in and around the blind spot and use the blind spot filling-in to investigate plastic processes in the maps and their relationship with spatial perception. The results and the developed paradigms will be applied to the study of scotomas (blind areas resulting from ocular diseases) using virtual reality simulations.
Since Platypus aims to understand how changing a motor representation is linked to changes in visual space we study whether spatial plasticity is driven directly by oculomotor adaptation or whether it is a consequence of the change of the visual scene occurring during an eye movement. We investigate whether similar plastic effects occur for eye blinks as for gaze shifts, two different types of interruption of the visual input. We search for the physiological basis of the adaptation-induced changes to spatial perception. We also study how changes in spatial or motor coordinates translate into changes in the perception of the size and shape of objects and in reaching movements towards objects.
The research on plastic aspects of visual and motor space in PLATYPUS is strongly related to applied issues in optometry and ophthalmology. The developed paradigms will be used for translational approaches, i.e. they will be applied to study perceptual and motor changes in conjunction with wearing progressive additional lens glasses. Progressive additional lenses introduce different geometric distortions in different parts of the visual field, producing a direct coupling between eye position and size perception. Platypus will study the implications of this coupling for applications in wearers of progressive additional lenses. Our approach involves virtual reality simulations of such optical distortions coupled with eye tracking in gaze contingent head-mounted displays in order to develop training tools.