Fig. 3: “Saccadic suppression” in retina.

a We recorded RGC activity from ex vivo retinae placed on multi-electrode arrays (MEA). A coarse (left) or fine (right) texture was repeatedly translated in a saccade-like manner (red or blue scan paths), and we presented brief visual flashes at different times relative to “saccades” (similar to Fig. 1). b, c Average activity of an example RGC to 39 texture displacements alone (b) or followed by probe flashes at different time delays (c). Red and blue bars show the timings of the texture displacements; orange bars indicate probe flashes. Flash-induced responses were strongly suppressed immediately following saccade-like texture displacements. d Isolated flash responses of the same RGC obtained by subtracting responses in b from those in c. Dashed colored lines highlight the time courses of retinal “saccadic suppression” relative to baseline flash-induced responses. Asterisks indicate flash-induced responses that are significantly suppressed from baseline (p < 0.001, one-tailed sign test; Methods). e Population modulation index (mean ± s.e.m.) across individual RGCs highlighting retinal “saccadic suppression” (Methods; negative values indicate suppressed flash-induced neural responses). Both mouse and pig retinae showed strong suppression during and after texture displacements, which also depended on texture statistics (similar to perception; Figs. 1 and 2). Asterisks indicate statistically significant suppression (p < 0.0001, two-tailed Wilcoxon signed-rank test; Methods). Hash symbols indicate significant differences in suppression between coarse and fine textures (p < 0.01, two-tailed Wilcoxon signed-rank test; Methods). Exact p-values are indicated in Supplementary Fig. 5. The numbers of recorded cells at each flash time in e were: mouse RGCs: N = 179 (–177 ms, –84 ms, –50 ms), 161 (–67 ms), 136 (50 ms), 527 (117 ms), 520 (150 ms), 502 (200 ms, 600 ms), 688 (350 ms), 345 (1100 ms); pig RGCs: N = 228 for each time point. Supplementary Figs. 5 and 6 show the population data underlying panel e.