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Computational analysis of non-Fourier motion.

Non-Fourier motion is now commonplace in research on visual motion perception, yet lacks a computational framework. This paper examines this issue based on the observation that many non-Fourier motion stimuli have a simple characterization in the frequency domain, in terms of oriented power distributions that lie along lines (or planes) that do not pass through the origin. This provides a unifying theoretical framework for a very diverse class of non-Fourier phenomena. It also allows us to examine some central issues concerning the computational nature of non-Fourier models, and naturally occurring sources of non-Fourier motion. For example, it is shown that the orientation of power in frequency domain corresponds to the velocity of a multiplicative envelope, and may arise as a restricted form of lighting effects, translucency or occlusion. We also show that both the location and orientation of spectral power may be extracted from the phase and amplitude output of band-pass filters, consonant with existing non-Fourier models.

Fourier Analysis↗

A computational model of selective deficits in first and second-order motion processing.

Recent neurological studies of selective impairments in first and second-order motion processing are of considerable relevance in elucidating the mechanisms of motion perception in normal human observers. We examine the stimuli which have been used to assess first and second-order motion processing capabilities in clinical subjects, and discuss the nature of the computations necessary to extract their motion. We find that a simple computational model of first and second-order motion processing is able to account for the data. The model consists of a first-order channel computing motion at coarse and fine scales, and a coarse scale second-order channel. The second-order channel is sensitive to motion information defined by variations in luminance, contrast, spatial frequency and flicker. When elements of the model are disabled, its performance on either first or second-order motion can be selectively impaired in line with the neurological data.

Brain Diseases↗

Psychophysics of motion adaptation parallels insect electrophysiology.

We investigate the form and time course of motion adaptation, comparing the psychophysical performance of human subjects with existing electrophysiological data on insect vision. In the H1 neuron of the fly, the response to a maintained motion stimulus is known to decrease over time while sensitivity to variations in speed around the maintained level increases. This behaviour can be modelled by modifying a correlation-based motion detector to include adaptable temporal filters (Fig. 1). We find that the form and time course of sensitivity changes in human motion perception are comparable to fly vision. We propose that, in both cases, adaptation serves to improve the transmission of novel motion information along the visual pathways at the expense of maintaining an accurate representation of the unchanging components of the stimulus.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Metastable motion anisotropy.

The phenomenon of apparent motion can arise when two spatially separated visual tokens are presented in temporal sequence. If tokens at opposite corners of a hypothetical square are presented simultaneously followed by simultaneous presentation of tokens at the remaining two corners, an apparent motion percept may occur along either the vertical or horizontal axis. The display is perceptually metastable since most observers will perceive motion along only one axis at a time. The metastable display, however, produces anisotropic results, in that with central fixation, vertical motion is seen more frequently than horizontal motion. The ratio of the vertical to horizontal length of the sides of a rectangle needed to achieve equal frequencies of motion judgments along the respective axes falls in the range of 1.18-1.92 for different observers in our experiments. It appears that signal transmission across the vertical midline is a major determinant of the vertical bias, since the anisotropic effects disappear when the fixation point is sufficiently offset along the horizontal meridian so as to cause a fully homonymous representation of all of the metastable tokens. One of the factors may be signal degradation or delay in callosal transmission which could reduce the strength of the motion signal along the horizontal axis. In addition, there appears to be a strip along the vertical midline with a width of 30-50 min arc within which reduced levels of anisotropy are found. The possibility that this strip is a consequence of a zone of naso-temporal overlap in the projection of the retina to the brain along the vertical meridian will be discussed.

Anisotropy↗

Motion sickness severity and physiological correlates during repeated exposures to a rotating optokinetic drum.

Fifty-two subjects were exposed to a rotating optokinetic drum. Ten of these subjects who became motion sick during the first session completed two additional sessions. Subjects' symptoms of motion sickness, perception of self-motion, electrogastrograms (EGGs), heart rate, mean successive differences of R-R intervals (RRI), and skin conductance were recorded for each session. The results from the first session indicated that the development of motion sickness was accompanied by increased EGG 4-9 cpm activity (gastric tachyarrhythmia), decreased mean successive differences of RRI, increased skin conductance levels, and increased self-motion perception. The results from the subjects who had three repeated sessions showed that 4-9 cpm EGG activity, skin conductance levels, perception of self-motion, and symptoms of motion sickness all increased significantly during the drum rotation period of the first session, but increased significantly less during the following sessions. Mean successive differences of RRI decreased significantly during the drum rotation period for the first session, but decreased significantly less during the following sessions. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that the development of motion sickness is accompanied by an increase in gastric tachyarrhythmia, and an increase in sympathetic activity and a decrease in parasympathetic activity, and that adaptation to motion sickness is accompanied by the recovery of autonomic nervous system balance.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

The continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion is object-based.

The occurrence of perceived reversed motion while observers view a periodic, continuously moving stimulus (the "continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion") has been taken as evidence that some aspects of motion perception rely on discrete sampling of visual information. The spatial extent of this sampling is currently under debate. When two separate motion stimuli are viewed simultaneously, the illusion of reversed motion rarely occurs for both objects together: this rules out global sampling of the visual field. The same result holds when the objects are superimposed by transparency: this argues against location-based sampling. Here we show that the sampling is in fact object-based: we use a rotating ring stimulus split in two halves. When the two halves move in opposite directions, appearing to belong to separate objects, perceptual reversals occur in either half at a time, but rarely in both. When the two halves physically move in compatible directions, they generally appear to reverse simultaneously: the illusion keeps the perceptual object united. Rather than the local low-level properties of the motion stimulus (which are comparable in both cases), it is thus the high-level organization of the scene that determines the extent of perceived motion reversals. These results imply that the continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion, and any discrete perceptual sampling that may cause it, is restricted to the object of our attention.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Visual motion of missing-fundamental patterns: motion energy versus feature correspondence.

Missing-fundamental gratings, generated by subtracting the fundamental Fourier components from square-wave gratings, appear to move backward when presented in quarter-cycle jumps, even though their edges and features all move forward. We used variants of these stimuli to test current models of motion perception. We found that missing-fundamental plaids, constructed from orthogonal missing-fundamental gratings, also appear to move backward. Forward motion was restored to missing-fundamental gratings and plaids by adding back small fractions of the original fundamental. In-phase and antiphase addition of the fundamental had similar effects on the perceived motion, despite having markedly different effects on the features, appearances and zero-crossings of the stimuli. The critical amplitude of fundamental needed to restore forward motion to plaids was the same as that needed to restore forward motion to their isolated component gratings, indicating that the plaids' emergent features, such as edge intersections and 'blobs', made little or no contribution to the perceived direction of motion in these stimuli. In two derivative experiments, missing-fundamental chromatic gratings and plaids, at approximate isoluminance, and missing-fundamental luminance barberpoles, also generated backward perceived motions, and these were also reversed by in-phase or antiphase addition of small amounts of fundamental.

Fourier Analysis↗

An unbiased measure of the contributions of chroma and luminance to saccadic suppression of displacement.

Perception of image displacement is suppressed during saccadic eye movements. We probed the source of saccadic suppression of displacement by testing whether it selectively affects chromatic- or luminance-based motion information. Human subjects viewed a stimulus in which chromatic and luminance cues provided conflicting information about displacement direction. Apparent motion occurred during either fixation or a 19.5 degree saccade. Subjects detected motion and discriminated displacement direction in each trial. They reported motion in over 90% of fixation trials and over 70% of saccade trials. During fixation, the probability of perceiving the direction carried by chromatic cues decreased as luminance contrast increased. During saccades, subjects tended to perceive the direction indicated by luminance cues when luminance contrast was high. However, when luminance contrast was low, subjects showed no preference for the chromatic- or luminance-based direction. Thus magnocellular channels are suppressed, while stimulation of parvocellular channels is below threshold, so that neither channel drives motion perception during saccades. These results confirm that magnocellular inhibition is the source of saccadic suppression.

Adult↗

Visuo-vestibular interaction in the reconstruction of travelled trajectories.

We recently published a study of the reconstruction of passively travelled trajectories from optic flow. Perception was prone to illusions in a number of conditions, and was not always veridical in the others. Part of the illusionary reconstructed trajectories could be explained by assuming that subjects base their reconstruction on the ego-motion percept built during the stimulus' initial moments. In the current paper, we test this hypothesis using a novel paradigm: if the final reconstruction is governed by the initial percept, providing additional, extra-retinal information that modifies the initial percept should predictably alter the final reconstruction. The extra-retinal stimulus was tuned to supplement the information that was under-represented or ambiguous in the optic flow; the subjects were physically displaced or rotated at the onset of the visual stimulus. A highly asymmetric velocity profile (high acceleration, very low deceleration) was used. Subjects were required to guide an input device (in the form of a model vehicle; we measured position and orientation) along the perceived trajectory. We show for the first time that a vestibular stimulus of short duration can influence the perception of a much longer-lasting visual stimulus. Perception of the ego-motion translation component in the visual stimulus was improved by a linear physical displacement, perception of the ego-motion rotation component by a physical rotation. This led to a more veridical reconstruction in some conditions, but to a less veridical reconstruction in other conditions.

Acceleration↗

Isolation and characteristics of a steady-state visually-evoked potential in humans related to the motion of a stimulus.

We have examined the visual potential evoked by two motion stimuli. In the first stimulus (termed coherent motion) a random-dot pattern oscillated between phases of coherent and incoherent ("snowstorm") motion, and in the second a random-dot pattern alternated in direction of motion (termed direction change). We found that the response to the coherent motion stimulus is low-pass with respect to speed, has low contrast sensitivity and increases steadily with the contrast of the stimuli. The direction change visually-evoked potential (VEP) is band-pass with respect to speed, has high contrast sensitivity but then saturates and even reduces as the stimulus contrast is raised above 0.1. The behaviour of the direction change VEP is similar in nature to results from psychophysical experiments of motion perception and to the known properties of directionally selective cells of the cortex. On the other hand the behaviour of the coherent motion VEP suggests this may not be mediated by a mechanism specific to motion.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

Two mechanisms underlie processing of stochastic motion stimuli.

We have constructed "limited lifetime" stochastic motion stimuli using Gabor functions instead of dots, thereby controlling the local attributes of spatial frequency and orientation. Human psychophysical data for direction discrimination using these stimuli reveal two qualitatively distinct kinds of processing. For small displacements, direction discrimination performance as a function of displacement is scaled with spatial frequency in a manner consistent with a linear filtering motion mechanism. Motion perception for relatively large displacements is not directly related to the spatial frequency, and is consistent with a nonlinear process which signals motion of contrast envelopes.

Discrimination, Psychological↗

Perceptual organization in moving patterns.

Is human motion perception based on a local piecemeal analysis of the image or do global effects play an important role? We used metastable apparent motion displays (Fig. 2) to try to answer this question. Two spots were flashed simultaneously on diagonally opposite corners of a square and then switched off and replaced by two spots appearing on the remaining corners. One could either see vertical or horizontal oscillation of the spots and the display was bistable just as a Necker cube is. We found that if several such bistable figures were randomly scattered on the screen (Fig. 3b), and presented simultaneously, then one always saw the same motion-axis in all of them, suggesting the presence of global field-like effects for resolving ambiguity in apparent motion. Surprisingly, the appearance of these displays could not be influenced by voluntary effort unless the speed of alternation was very slow. (Less than 3 frames per second.) It may be that if the events in the module that computes apparent motion are too rapid then it cannot be coupled with the "will" mechanism, which may have a long time constant.

Adult↗

A model for the estimate of local image velocity by cells in the visual cortex.

Some computational theories of motion perception assume that the first stage en route to this perception is the local estimate of image velocity. However, this assumption is not supported by data from the primary visual cortex. Its motion sensitive cells are not selective to velocity, but rather are directionally selective and tuned to spatio-temporal frequencies. Accordingly, physiologically based theories start with filters selective to oriented spatio-temporal frequencies. This paper shows that computational and physiological theories do not necessarily conflict, because such filters may, as a population, compute velocity locally. To prove this point, we show how to combine the outputs of a class of frequency tuned filters to detect local image velocity. Furthermore, we show that the combination of filters may simulate 'Pattern' cells in the middle temporal area (MT), whereas each filter simulates primary visual cortex cells. These simulations include three properties of the primary cortex. First, the spatio-temporal frequency tuning curves of the individual filters display approximate space-time separability. Secondly, their direction-of-motion tuning curves depend on the distribution of orientations of the components of the Fourier decomposition and speed of the stimulus. Thirdly, the filters show facilitation and suppression for responses to apparent motions in the preferred and null directions, respectively. It is suggested that the MT's role is not to solve the aperture problem, but to estimate velocities from primary cortex information. The spatial integration that accounts for motion coherence may be postponed to a later cortical stage.

Animals↗

Induced motion at texture-defined motion boundaries.

When a static textured background is covered and uncovered by a moving bar of the same mean luminance we can clearly see the motion of the bar. Texture-defined motion provides an example of a naturally occurring second-order motion. Second-order motion sequences defeat standard spatio-temporal energy models of motion perception. It has been proposed that second-order stimuli are analysed by separate systems, operating in parallel with luminance-defined motion processing, which incorporate identifiable pre-processing stages that make second-order patterns visible to standard techniques. However, the proposal of multiple paths to motion analysis remains controversial. Here we describe the behaviour of a model that recovers both luminance-defined and an important class of texture-defined motion. The model also accounts for the induced motion that is seen in some texture-defined motion sequences. We measured the perceived direction and speed of both the contrast envelope and induced motion in the case of a contrast modulation of static noise textures. Significantly, the model predicts the perceived speed of the induced motion seen at second-order texture boundaries. The induced motion investigated here appears distinct from classical induced effects resulting from motion contrast or the movement of a reference frame.

Humans↗

Velocity sensitivity of areas 17 and 18 of the cat.

Velocity sensitivity of areas 17 and 18 of the cat has been evaluated by preparing neuronal velocity-response (VR) curves in paralyzed and anaesthetized cats. VR curves suggest two possible mechanisms for neuronal coding of stimulus velocity as well as criterion for distinguishing between cells involved in analysis of stationary or moving objects. VR curves differ between cortical areas and with retinal eccentricity. Neurones with larger receptive fields (RFs) become, on the average, sensitive to faster velocities. Parallels with human psychophysics are pointed out as support of the suggestion that the present results are relevant for our insights in human motion perception.

Animals↗

Induced visual motion: effects of fixation and retinal position.

In the first of two experiments (N = 33) on the effects on induced motion of target fixation and retinal position, better induced motion was always perceived in a target which was fixated and centered on the fovea than in nonfixated target stimuli which projected onto various locations on the periphery. A similar fixation effect was again observed in Exp. 2 (N = 29) when the nonfixated stimuli fell within the fovea. Ratings of induced motion tended to decrease as retinal eccentricity of the nonfixated stimulus increased in both experiments. The results indicate that target fixation and retinal position should be controlled in research on induced motion. Also, the data may emphasize the similarity of real and induced motion perception.

Adult↗

Curvilinear approach to an intersection and visual detection of a collision.

Visual motion perception plays a fundamental role in vehicle control. Recent studies have shown that the pattern of optical flow resulting from the observer's self-motion through a stable environment is used by the observer to accurately control his or her movements. However, little is known about the perception of another vehicle during self-motion--for instance, when a car driver approaches an intersection with traffic. In a series of experiments using visual simulations of car driving, we show that observers are able to detect the presence of a moving object during self-motion. However, the perception of the other car's trajectory appears to be strongly dependent on environmental factors, such as the presence of a road sign near the intersection or the shape of the road. These results suggest that local and global visual factors determine the perception of a car's trajectory during self-motion.

Automobile Driving↗

A model for the spatial integration and differentiation of velocity signals.

We present a model of optic flow processing which is able to reconcile the integrative, cooperative phenomena of motion capture and coherence with the differentiation of velocity signals in motion segmentation and transparency. The model uses a Markov random field to compute the behaviour of coextensive topographic neural maps of retinotopy and velocity. We have used the model to simulate the psychophysics of motion coherence, motion capture and transparency. Further, it exhibits motion segmentation without extra postulates. The model is robust and able to display all types of motion percept with the same parameter set.

Humans↗