Contrast sensitivity for oscillating sine wave gratings during ocular fixation and pursuit.

The influence of pursuit eye movements on the visibility of sine wave gratings was investigated by the simultaneous measurement of eye movements and contrast thresholds under different viewing conditions. It was concluded that: 1. with moving gratings contrast sensitivity during ocular pursuit was equal to contrast sensitivity during maintained fixation on a stationary target, provided that the magnitude of retinal image motion (0-20 deg/sec) was equal in both cases; 2. accurate pursuit eye movements led to a paradoxical suppression of the visibility of low spatial frequency gratings; 3. the visibility of high spatial frequency gratings remained unchanged during accurate pursuit eye movements; 4. iso-contrast-sensitivity resulting from both pursuit and non-pursuit conditions could be used to quantify the ocular pursuit performance.