Masking effects in saccadic eye movements

Saccadic eye movements made under normal viewing conditions are accompanied by a loss of visual sensitivity commonly labelled saccadic suppression or saccadic omission. Most explanations of the sensitivity loss that involve retinal factors imply visual masking. Despite this, the range of masking effects which may be involved here have not received much attention, with most research focusing on metacontrast effects. The experimental work presented here forms the first steps towards fully analyzing masking effects which may be involved in saccadic eye movements, and shows that metacontrast is only one type of masking that plays a role.