Interaction of Retinal Image and Eye Velocity in Motion Perception

When we move our eyes, why does the world look stable even as its image flows across our retinas, and why do afterimages, which are stationary on the retinas, appear to move? Current theories say this is because we perceive motion by summation: if an object slips across the retina at r°/s while the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Mass.), 2003-07, Vol.39 (3), p.569-576
Main Authors: Goltz, Herbert C., DeSouza, Joseph F.X., Menon, Ravi S., Tweed, Douglas B., Vilis, Tutis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain research
Confidence Intervals
Experiments
Eye Movements - physiology
Humans
Medical research
Motion Perception - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Retina - physiology
Sensory perception
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Summary:When we move our eyes, why does the world look stable even as its image flows across our retinas, and why do afterimages, which are stationary on the retinas, appear to move? Current theories say this is because we perceive motion by summation: if an object slips across the retina at r°/s while the eye turns at e°/s, the object's perceived velocity in space should be r + e. We show that activity in MT+, the visual-motion complex in human cortex, does reflect a mix of r and e rather than r alone. But we show also that, for optimal perception, r and e should not summate; rather, the signals coding e interact multiplicatively with the spatial gradient of illumination.
ISSN:0896-6273
1097-4199
DOI:10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00460-4