Glossary terms

After-discharge

A sensory neuron's response to the turning off of a stimulus.

Blindsight

A neurological condition in which a patient with damage in the primary visual cortex is unaware of visual events that occur in the corresponding portion of the visual field, despite exhibiting good performance on visual tasks conducted in that region.

Change blindness

The failure to notice changes in an object or scene over a period of time.

Inattentional blindness

The failure to notice a salient object or visible feature in a scene owing to misdirected attention or attention that is not engaged at a level sufficient to achieve awareness of the object.

Magic palming technique

The technique used by magicians to hide items in the palms of their hands (which are turned away from the observer), so as to make it look like the hands are empty.

Microsaccades

Small, involuntary saccades that are produced when subjects attempt to fixate their gaze on a visual target.

Saccade

A fast, jerky eye movement that transports the fovea from one visual target to another in a straight-line trajectory.

Smooth pursuit movement

A type of eye movement in which the retinal fovea smoothly tracks the position of a moving object.