CHAPTER 13 NOTES: THE VISUAL SYSTEM – Motion Perception

Fundamental Aspects of Motion Processing

What is Motion?

- Motion is when an object moves across a certain amount of space (direction) in a given amount of time (speed)
o Speed – how much distance is covered in a set amount of time
o Direction + speed = Velocity
- Space-time diagram are used to depict motion (position vs. time)

Temporal Vision

- The Speed of sight: 80-120ms for visual signals to reach the higher areas of the visual cortex + another 80-100ms
to make a motor response to the stimulus.
- Temporal Resolution: how fast can the eye detect changes in moving stimulus?
o Temporal frequency – the rate of change of a visual stimulus and is measured in Hertz
o Flicker Perception – use to test how fast we are able to follow a changing stimulus.
 We can detect frequencies up to 60Hz after which the flicker disappears.
o Critical Flicker Fusion (CFF) – the frequency at which temporal changes are undetectable
o The greater our temporal resolving ability at a particular frequency, the lower the contrast needed to
just observe the flicker
o Temporal Contrast Sensitivity Function – Frequency vs. Sensitivity curve.
 Optimal sensitivty at 10-15Hz
 Temporal sensitivity declines on either side of that optimal range
- Time to Collision (TTC): Depends on the retinal image change
o retinal image rapidly becomes much larger for an approaching object.
o Tau – the ratio of the retinal image size to the rate at which it is expanding at any given moment
 Tau provides accurate estimate of TTC
 Tau can do this w/o the need for obtaining object distance or its rate of mov’t toward us.

Low-Level Motion Detectors

- Directional Selectivity: The ability of a neuron to distinguish one direction of motion from all other
- The Reichardt Detector: See diagram + explanation on pg. 445-446
o Relies only on temporal summation of signals from two detectors to produce directional selectivity.
o a preference for another direction of mov’t is easily created by either placing the interneuron in the
other pathway or by linking detectors that have different receptive field placements
o Reichardt detectors can be tuned to faster and slower speedsCortical Motion Mechanisms
- Motion Processing in Area V1: majority of neurons with high directional selectivity are found in the bottom layer
(Layer 6) and middle band (4b)
o All other layers show either an absence or at best a weak selectivity for mov’t direction
o Area V1 represent only the first stage of motion processing
- Motion Processing Beyond Area V1:
o Area MT (V5) is dedicated exclusively to motion processing
 Vast majority of the neurons in this area are directionally selective
o Area MST process even more advanced properties of motion signal
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 o Dorsal Visual Stream – the set of visual areas in the parietal lobe along with the motion area that is
involved in computing dynamic aspects of vision and the spaitail relationships of objects so as to guide
motor function

Perceptual Aspects of Motion

Psychophysical Studies of Motion Perception

- Motion Thresholds
o Speed
 an object that moves too slowly or too fast does not generated perceived movement
 motion detection is better when an object is moving against a background of other objects than
against an empty field
 The longer we are bale to view a moving object, the lower the motion detection threshold
o Eccentricity – retinal position
 objects moving across the central visual field have lower motion threshold than those in the
periphery
 there is a steady deterioration of motion detection ability with increasing retinal eccentricity
 When object move relatively fast, the periphery is actually superior at detecting mov’t than the
central retina (i.e. a fly buzzing in the periphery)
- Motion Stimuli: Different types of moving stimuli
o Bar of lights oriented at a specific angle – many directional selective neurons also have a orientation
preference
o Correlated Dot motion – a bunch of dots that can either move in random direction or move in one
direction. Can also adjust the percentage of dots moving in one direction.
 advantageous b/c the threshold can be measured under diff experimental circumstances and
also track perceptual loss in clinical conditions

Role of Motion in Perception and Behaviour

- Motion signals can….

o Support our perceptual organization (i.e. seeing a camouflaged animal move)
o help us to deduce the 3D structure of objects
o help us to determine the identity of complex objects and even people (aka Identity-from-motion)
- Biological Motion Perception: refers to the ability of how a collection of point-light mov’t can lead to an
immediate and vivid perception of the person’s movement and identity.
o Gender can also be identified just from the few light sources attached to the body’s joints
- Kinetic Depth Effect: a phenomenon that in which movement can enhance the three dimensional appearance of
objects in space
o Structure-from-motion – the recovery of 3D info and its use in producing form perception
- Guiding Locomotion: When we move towards an object or one direction there’s an expansion of the peripheral
scene and thus a changing pattern of retinal movement.
o this visual expansion on the retina during forward locomotion helps to coordinate and guide the mov’t
of the body, to maintain heading direction and steer around obstacles.

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Motion Sensing

- The Motion After-effect: The illusion that a stationary object appears to be moving immediately after looking at
a moving stimuli (i.e. a flowing river)
o The perceived movement of the stationary object is in the opposite direction as the moving stimuli
o This illusion is an example of motion adaptation.
 Neurons viewing a specific direction get stimulated so much that they get tired (adapted). They
respond slower than the other neurons that have a preference for the opposite direction. This
causes us to perceive a stationary object to be moving in the opposite direction.
o Neural adaptation takes place in Area V1 as proven by the phenomenon interocular transfer
 When only one eye (i.e. right eye) gets adapted to the moving stimuli, the other eye (left eye)
still perceive movement of the stationary object.
- The Aperture Problem: a problem in that global motion of an object is not faithfully represented by the motion
viewed only through the aperture.
o The solution to this problem is the integration of multiple apertures (circular ganglion fields).
- Higher-order Motion Processing
o First order motion – luminance-defined object movement. The moving edge of an object is defined by a
difference in light level compared to its immediate surroundings
o Second order motion – the ability to detect motion of an object in isoluminant conditions
 Processing of this kind of motion is at higher areas (i.e. MT and MST)

Illusory Motion

- Apparent Motion: Arises when a stimulus is presented at one location, turned off, and then shown at a different
location shortly afterwards. This sequence produces a vivid impression of mov’t from the first point to the 2nd
point.
o The law of minimum principle – we do not necessarily perceive the real word as it is butinstead organize
our perceptual experiences to be as simple as possible.
o This illusion can be explained by the sequential activation of Reichardy-type detectors.
- The Wagon-wheel Effect
o The illusion that when any rotating object reaches a certain speed in one direction we perceive it
spinning in the opposite direction (i.e. plane propeller, wheels)
- The Correspondence Problem
- Complex Motion Illusions:
o One class of this type of illusion is base on object-object interaction where the mov’t of one object
imparts an illusory mov’t upon another
 Induced Motion – when a large moving object or background induces movement in a smaller
stationary object (i.e. when clouds moves, we actually perceive the moon as moving instead)
 This is because we generally assume that big things are stationary.
o Another class of this complex illusion occurs when moving objects impart a sense of self-motion.
 Vection Illusion – the movement of oneself int eh opposite direction
 I.e. when a train moves forward beside us, we think we are moving backward
o Final class of motion illusion is dependent upon eye mov’t while viewing a visual stimulus. In all cases
the stimulus is stationary, though the effects ofmoving the eyes over it generates a sense of illusory
mov’t.
 Rotating Snakes Illusion
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