Ongoing Project WhEye — Active Temporal Encoding of Spatial Information in Dyslexia

WhEye — Active Temporal Encoding of Spatial Information in Dyslexia

Unlike the traditional theories of visual functions, which assume vision as a purely perceptual process entirely based on spatial mechanisms, WhEye proposes that (i) spatial representation is inherently a visuomotor process, (ii) fundamentally relying on spatiotemporal encoding mechanisms, and (iii) on a sustained visuomotor synchronization operating through neural oscillations. Reading serves as an exemplar test case: as we read a text, our eyes continuously jump from word to word, converting the static spatial signal from the written page into a spatiotemporal movie that our neurons encode. Moreover, eye movements need to be tightly coordinated with visual processing to optimize reading time.

“WhEye - Active Temporal Encoding of Spatial Information in Dyslexia” aims to combine high precision physiological and psychological measures to test the timely hypothesize that the poor reading skills a subset of individuals with developmental dyslexia, a common disorder affecting reading, arise from a deficit in active vision, originating from a poor spatiotemporal and visuomotor coding of visual information.

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Publications and Proceedings:

• Benedetto, A., Jenks, S. K., Mishra, M. V., Giesbrecht, B., & Poletti, M. (2025). The speed of visual discrimination differs between foveola and perifovea: a combined EEG and behavioral investigation. eNeuro.
• Lin, R., Benedetto, A., & Rucci, M. (2025). Consequences of temporal modulations on foveal vision. Journal of Vision, 25(9), 2156-2156.
• Guzhang, Y., Benedetto, A., & Poletti, M. (2025). Attention-related N2pc component of the visual evoked potentials as a marker of fine-grain shifts of attention within the foveola. Journal of Vision, 25(9), 2494-2494.
• Benedetto, A., Cox, M. A., Victor, J. D., & Rucci, M. (2025). Oculomotor contribution to synchronization of cortical activity. Journal of Vision, 25(9), 2191-2191.