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Mechanisms of visual motion detection

Nature Neuroscience volume 3, pages 64–68 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Visual motion is processed by neurons in primary visual cortex that are sensitive to spatial orientation and speed. Many models of local velocity computation are based on a second stage that pools the outputs of first-stage neurons selective for different orientations, but the nature of this pooling remains controversial. In a human psychophysical detection experiment, we found near-perfect summation of image energy when it was distributed uniformly across all orientations, but poor summation when it was concentrated in specific orientation bands. The data are consistent with a model that integrates uniformly over all orientations, even when this strategy is sub-optimal.

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Figure 1: A translational motion detector.
Figure 2: Filter sets and examples of their corresponding signals.
Figure 3: Detection thresholds.
Figure 4: Experiment 2.
Figure 5: Threshold SNRs for detecting the five types of pattern stimuli replotted from experiments 1 and 2, where Plaid 1 in the legend denotes the plaid from the first experiment and Plaid 2 from the second.

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Acknowledgements

P.S. was supported by an NIH training grant, D.C.K. was supported by a grant from the NIH and E.P.S. was supported by a Sloan Fellowship, an NSF CAREER grant and the Sloan Program in Theoretical Neurobiology at New York University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, N218 Elliott Hall, 75 E. River Dr., Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    Paul R. Schrater

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3815 Walnut St., Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA

    David C. Knill

  3. Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, 10003, New York, USA

    Eero P. Simoncelli

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  1. Paul R. Schrater
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  2. David C. Knill
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  3. Eero P. Simoncelli
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Correspondence to Paul R. Schrater.

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Schrater, P., Knill, D. & Simoncelli, E. Mechanisms of visual motion detection. Nat Neurosci 3, 64–68 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/71134

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