Golnaz Forouzandehfar¹ (), A . Caglar Tas; ¹University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Saccadic suppression refers to the decreased sensitivity to visual information during saccades. Previous studies showed that high-luminance contrast stimuli that are presented during the saccade typically are not detected (e.g., Knӧll et al., 2011). Although saccadic suppression reduces conscious awareness of transient visual events, suppressed stimuli may still influence perceptual representations. The present study investigates whether suppressed luminance stimuli affect perception of the saccade target. Participants (N=4) executed a saccade to a colored target on a gray background. Brief luminance flashes (6% or 24% contrast levels with the background) were presented equidistant from the fixation and the target at various temporal offsets relative to saccade onset. Participants reported whether they perceived the luminance target and the color of the saccade target on a color spectrum with the same hue but varied luminance. The results showed that participants failed to perceive the luminance target, replicating previous work. Importantly, they chose brighter colors compared to when no luminance flash was presented. Comparison with the no-saccade control condition also showed perception of a brighter target when a saccade was executed. These results highlight the role of suppressed stimuli in shaping perceptual representations. When the luminance target was presented during the saccade, it biased remembered brightness of the saccade target even though its presence did not reach to awareness.