biostudies-literatureWu YNational Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)6366https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9606005biostudies-literatureUnknown13(1)Microsaccades play a critical role in refreshing visual information and have been shown to have direction-specific influences on human perception. However, the neural mechanisms underlying such direction-specific effects remains unknown. Here, we report the emergence of direction-specific microsaccade modulation in the middle layer of V2 but not in V1: responses of V2 neurons after microsaccades moved toward their receptive fields were stronger than those when microsaccades moved away. The decreased responses from V1 to V2, which are correlated with the amplitude of microsaccades away from receptive fields, suggest topographically location-specific suppression from an oculomotor source. Consistent with directional effects in V2, microsaccades function as a guide for monkeys' behavior in a peripheral detection task; both can be explained by a dynamic neural network. Our findings suggest a V1-bypassing suppressive circuit for direction-specific microsaccade modulation in V2 and its functional influence on visual sensitivity, which highlights the optimal sampling nature of microsaccades.Nature communicationsV1-bypassing suppression leads to direction-specific microsaccade modulation in visual coding and perception.PMC96060053210083132171033Li YYang YZhang YWang TDai WZhou TXing DHan CWu YfalseV1-bypassing suppression leads to direction-specific microsaccade modulation in visual coding and perception.Microsaccades play a critical role in refreshing visual information and have been shown to have direction-specific influences on human perception. However, the neural mechanisms underlying such direction-specific effects remains unknown. Here, we report the emergence of direction-specific microsaccade modulation in the middle layer of V2 but not in V1: responses of V2 neurons after microsaccades moved toward their receptive fields were stronger than those when microsaccades moved away. The decreased responses from V1 to V2, which are correlated with the amplitude of microsaccades away from receptive fields, suggest topographically location-specific suppression from an oculomotor source. Consistent with directional effects in V2, microsaccades function as a guide for monkeys' behavior in a peripheral detection task; both can be explained by a dynamic neural network. Our findings suggest a V1-bypassing suppressive circuit for direction-specific microsaccade modulation in V2 and its functional influence on visual sensitivity, which highlights the optimal sampling nature of microsaccades.2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Oct2025-04-18T21:22:13.485Z2025-04-07T09:16:01.64ZS-EPMC96060053628922410.1038/s41467-022-34057-3