# Neural and perceptual mechanisms of spatial stability across eye movements

> **NIH NIH R01** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $401,793

## Abstract

Project Summary
 The overarching goal of this research is to better understand the human visual system, and how objects
and their locations are perceived and represented in the brain. The proposal investigates a fundamental
challenge for our visual systems: Visual information is coded relative to the eyes, but the eyes are
constantly moving. How, then, do we achieve spatial stability? The world does not appear to “jump” with
each eye movement, but this seamless percept belies a complicated computational process. Moreover,
spatial localization is not an isolated process; it interacts with attention, object recognition, depth perception,
memory, cognitive control, and more. In order to understand visual stability, we need to account for both
how spatial information is represented (or “remapped”) across eye movements, and how spatial information
is integrated with these other processes. Research under the prior award made strong strides in two key
directions along these lines: understanding how 2D spatial information is integrated with depth information
to consider spatial stability in 3D, and revealing how spatial remapping impacts feature/object perception. In
the next stage of this research program, we build on this momentum to investigate spatial and object
stability across eye movements – and their integration more broadly – with a special focus on the roles of
dynamic context and top-down attentional control. In Aim 1 we employ an fMRI-EEG fusion approach to
investigate 3D stability and object integration in visual cortex and the hippocampus, hypothesizing that
dynamic, active saccade context may promote enhanced visual integration and stability. Next, we further
develop the PI’s Dual-Spotlight Theory of remapping (Golomb, 2019) and explore the role of top-down
attentional control in remapping and perceptual stability (Aim 2). Finally, we develop a new model-based
neuroimaging analysis technique to enable future progress on persistently less tractable aspects of this
question (Aim 3). The proposed experiments strive to continue to transform our understanding of visual
stability, particularly how it interfaces with other perceptual and cognitive processes that are central to our
understanding of human perception and brain function. The research proposed here will have an immediate
impact on our understanding of typical visual functioning in healthy human populations. These advances
could also have a longer-term impact on a variety of clinical applications, informing our knowledge and
assessment of visual disorders resulting from eye disease, injury, brain damage, and development/aging.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10894871
- **Project number:** 5R01EY025648-09
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Julie D Golomb
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $401,793
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2015-08-01 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10894871

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10894871, Neural and perceptual mechanisms of spatial stability across eye movements (5R01EY025648-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10894871. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*