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Anticipation of moving stimuli by the retina

Nature volume 398, pages 334–338 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

A flash of light evokes neural activity in the brain with a delay of 30–100 milliseconds1, much of which is due to the slow process of visual transduction in photoreceptors2,3. A moving object can cover a considerable distance in this time, and should therefore be seen noticeably behind its actual location. As this conflicts with everyday experience, it has been suggested that the visual cortex uses the delayed visual data from the eye to extrapolate the trajectory of a moving object, so that it is perceived at its actual location4,5,6,7. Here we report that such anticipation of moving stimuli begins in the retina. A moving bar elicits a moving wave of spiking activity in the population of retinal ganglion cells. Rather than lagging behind the visual image, the population activity travels near the leading edge of the moving bar. This response is observed over a wide range of speeds and apparently compensates for the visual response latency. We show how this anticipation follows from known mechanisms of retinal processing.

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Figure 1: Responses of two ganglion cells to flashed and moving bars.
Figure 2: Population response to flashed and moving bars.
Figure 3: Dependence of motion extrapolation on contrast.
Figure 4: Cascade model for a ganglion cell's light response.
Figure 5: Dependence of motion extrapolation on speed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Keat for assistance in generating the visual stimulus, and H. Berg and T.Holy for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a NRSA to M.B. and a grant from the NIH and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship to M.M.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael J. Berry II, Iman H. Brivanlou & Markus Meister

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Thomas A. Jordan

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  1. Michael J. Berry II
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  2. Iman H. Brivanlou
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  4. Markus Meister
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Correspondence and requests for material should be addressed to M.J.B.

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Berry, M., Brivanlou, I., Jordan, T. et al. Anticipation of moving stimuli by the retina. Nature 398, 334–338 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/18678

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