Vision out of the corner of the eye

The margin of the temporal visual field lies more than 90° from the line of sight and is critical for detecting incoming threats and for balance and locomotive control. We show (i) contrast sensitivity beyond 70° is higher for moving stimuli than for stationary, and in the outermost region, only moving stimuli are visible; (ii) sensitivity is highest for motion in directions near the vertical and horizontal axes and is higher for forward than for backward directions; (iii) the former anisotropy arises early in the visual pathway; (iv) thresholds for discriminating direction are lowest for upward and downward motion.