Spatial contexts can inhibit a mislocalization of visual stimuli during smooth pursuit.

The position of a flash presented during pursuit is mislocalized in the direction of the pursuit. Although this has been explained by a temporal mismatch between the slow visual processing of flash and fast efferent signals on eye positions, here we show that spatial contexts also play an important role in determining the flash position. We put various continuously lit objects (walls) between veridical and to-be-mislocalized positions of flash. Consequently, these walls significantly reduced the mislocalization of flash, preventing the flash from being mislocalized beyond the wall (Experiment 1). When the wall was shortened or had a hole in its center, the shape of the mislocalized flash was vertically shortened as if cutoff or funneled by the wall (Experiment 2). The wall also induced color interactions; a red wall made a green flash appear yellowish if it was in the path of mislocalization (Experiment 3). Finally, those flash-wall interactions could be induced even when the walls were presented after the disappearance of flash (Experiment 4). These results indicate that various features (position, shape, and color) of flash during pursuit are determined with an integration window that is spatially and temporally broad, providing a new insight for generating mechanisms of eye-movement mislocalizations.