The double-drift illusion biases the marmoset oculomotor system

The double-drift illusion has two unique characteristics: the error between the perceived and physical position of the stimulus grows over time, and saccades to the moving target land much closer to the physical than the perceived location. These results suggest that the perceptual and saccade targeting systems integrate visual information over different timescales. Functional imaging studies in humans have revealed several potential cortical areas of interest, including the prefrontal cortex. However, we currently lack an animal model to study the neural mechanisms of location perception that underlie the double-drift illusion. To fill this gap, we trained two marmoset monkeys to fixate and then saccade to the double drift stimulus. In line with human observers for radial double-drift trajectories, we find that saccade endpoints do show a significant bias that is, as it is in humans, smaller than that seen in perception. This bias is modulated by changes in the external and internal speeds of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that the saccade targeting system of the marmoset monkey is influenced by the double-drift illusion.