Despite growing evidence for perceptual interactions between motion and position, no unifying framework exists to account for these two key features of our visual experience. We show that percepts of ...both object position and motion derive from a common object-tracking systemâa system that optimally integrates sensory signals with a realistic model of motion dynamics, effectively inferring their generative causes. The object-tracking model provides an excellent fit to both position and motion judgments in simple stimuli. With no changes in model parameters, the same model also accounts for subjectsâ novel illusory percepts in more complex moving stimuli. The resulting framework is characterized by a strong bidirectional coupling between position and motion estimates and provides a rational, unifying account of a number of motion and position phenomena that are currently thought to arise from independent mechanisms. This includes motion-induced shifts in perceived position, perceptual slow-speed biases, slowing of motions shown in visual periphery, and the well-known curveball illusion. These results reveal that motion perception cannot be isolated from position signals. Even in the simplest displays with no changes in object position, our perception is driven by the output of an object-tracking system that rationally infers different generative causes of motion signals. Taken together, we show that object tracking plays a fundamental role in perception of visual motion and position.
Significance In our visual environment, object motion is strongly correlated with changes in object position. However, there is no unifying computational framework that can account for both motion and position perception and their interactions. Here, we propose and test an object-tracking model that optimally integrates sensory signals with a realistic model of motion dynamics. The model accounts for several well-known visual illusions, including motion-induced position shifts, slow speed biases, and the curveball illusion. Moreover, the model also makes several novel and, in some cases, counterintuitive predictions about interdependencies between position and motion. In summary, we provide a unifying framework that reconceptualizes how the human visual system constructs coherent percepts from noisy position and motion signals.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Visual perceptual learning (VPL) can lead to long-lasting perceptual improvements. One of the central topics in VPL studies is the locus of plasticity in the visual processing hierarchy. Here, we ...tackled this question in the context of motion processing. We took advantage of an established transition from component-dependent representations at the earliest level to pattern-dependent representations at the middle-level of cortical motion processing. Two groups of participants were trained on the same motion direction identification task using either grating or plaid stimuli. A set of pre- and post-training tests was used to determine the degree of learning specificity and generalizability. This approach allowed us to disentangle contributions from different levels of processing stages to behavioral improvements. We observed a complete bi-directional transfer of learning between component and pattern stimuli that moved to the same directions, indicating learning-induced plasticity associated with intermediate levels of motion processing. Moreover, we found that motion VPL is specific to the trained stimulus direction, speed, size, and contrast, diminishing the possibility of non-sensory decision-level enhancements. Taken together, these results indicate that, at least for the type of stimuli and the task used here, motion VPL most likely alters visual computation associated with signals at the middle stage of motion processing.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Damage to the primary visual cortex (V1) or its immediate afferents results in a dense scotoma, termed cortical blindness (CB). CB subjects have residual visual abilities, or blindsight, which allow ...them to detect and sometimes discriminate stimuli with high temporal and low spatial frequency content. Recent work showed that with training, discriminations in the blind field can become more reliable, and even reach consciousness. However, the narrow spatiotemporal bandwidth of blindsight limits its functional usefulness in everyday vision. Here, we asked whether visual training can induce recovery outside the spatiotemporal bandwidth of blindsight. Specifically, could human CB subjects learn to discriminate static, nonflickering stimuli? Can such learning transfer to untrained stimuli and tasks, and does double training with moving and static stimuli provide additional advantages relative to static training alone? We found CB subjects capable of relearning static orientation discriminations following single as well as double training. However, double training with complex, moving stimuli in a separate location was necessary to recover complex motion thresholds at locations trained with static stimuli. Subjects trained on static stimuli alone could only discriminate simple motion. Finally, both groups had approximately equivalent, incomplete recovery of fine orientation and direction discrimination thresholds, as well as contrast sensitivity. These results support two conclusions: (1) from a practical perspective, complex moving stimuli and double training may be superior training tools for inducing visual recovery in CB, and (2) the cortically blind visual system can relearn to perform a wider range of visual discriminations than predicted by blindsight alone.
Stroke damage to the primary visual cortex (V1) causes a loss of vision known as hemianopia or cortically-induced blindness. While perimetric visual field improvements can occur spontaneously in the ...first few months post-stroke, by 6 months post-stroke, the deficit is considered chronic and permanent. Despite evidence from sensorimotor stroke showing that early injury responses heighten neuroplastic potential, to date, visual rehabilitation research has focused on patients with chronic cortically-induced blindness. Consequently, little is known about the functional properties of the post-stroke visual system in the subacute period, nor do we know if these properties can be harnessed to enhance visual recovery. Here, for the first time, we show that 'conscious' visual discrimination abilities are often preserved inside subacute, perimetrically-defined blind fields, but they disappear by ∼6 months post-stroke. Complementing this discovery, we now show that training initiated subacutely can recover global motion discrimination and integration, as well as luminance detection perimetry, just as it does in chronic cortically-induced blindness. However, subacute recovery was attained six times faster; it also generalized to deeper, untrained regions of the blind field, and to other (untrained) aspects of motion perception, preventing their degradation upon reaching the chronic period. In contrast, untrained subacutes exhibited spontaneous improvements in luminance detection perimetry, but spontaneous recovery of motion discriminations was never observed. Thus, in cortically-induced blindness, the early post-stroke period appears characterized by gradual-rather than sudden-loss of visual processing. Subacute training stops this degradation, and is far more efficient at eliciting recovery than identical training in the chronic period. Finally, spontaneous visual improvements in subacutes were restricted to luminance detection; discrimination abilities only recovered following deliberate training. Our findings suggest that after V1 damage, rather than waiting for vision to stabilize, early training interventions may be key to maximize the system's potential for recovery.
Segregation of objects from their backgrounds is a fundamental visual function and one that is particularly effective when objects are in motion. Theoretically, suppressive center-surround mechanisms ...are well suited for accomplishing motion segregation. This longstanding hypothesis, however, has received limited empirical support. We report converging correlational and causal evidence that spatial suppression of background motion signals is critical for rapid segmentation of moving objects. Motion segregation ability is strongly predicted by both individual and stimulus-driven variations in spatial suppression strength. Moreover, aging-related superiority in perceiving background motion is associated with profound impairments in motion segregation. This segregation deficit is alleviated via perceptual learning, but only when motion segregation training also causes decreased sensitivity to background motion. We argue that perceptual insensitivity to large moving stimuli effectively implements background subtraction, which, in turn, enhances the visibility of moving objects and accounts for the observed link between spatial suppression and motion segregation.
Actions can be understood based on form cues (e.g., static body posture) as well as motion cues (e.g., gait patterns). A fundamental debate centers on the question of whether the functional and ...neural mechanisms processing these two types of cues are dissociable. Here, using fMRI, psychophysics, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), all within the same human participants, we show that mechanisms underlying body form and body motion processing are functionally and neurally distinct. Multivoxel fMRI activity patterns in the extrastriate body area (EBA), but not in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), carried cue invariant information about the body form of an acting human. Conversely, multivoxel patterns in pSTS, but not in EBA, carried information about the body motion of the same actor. In a psychophysical experiment, we selectively impaired body form and body motion discriminations by manipulating different visual cues: misaligning the ellipses that made up a dynamic walker stimulus selectively disrupted body form discriminations, while varying the presentation duration of the walker selectively affected body motion discriminations. Finally, a TMS experiment revealed causal evidence for a double-dissociation between neural mechanisms underlying body form and body motion discriminations: TMS over EBA selectively disrupted body form discrimination, whereas TMS over pSTS selectively disrupted body motion discrimination. Together, these findings reveal complementing but dissociable functions of EBA and pSTS during action perception. They provide constraints for theoretical and computational models of action perception by showing that action perception involves at least two parallel pathways that separately contribute to the understanding of others' behavior.
As a measure of the brain’s temporal fine-tuning capacity, temporal resolution power (TRP) explained repeatedly a substantial amount of variance in psychometric intelligence. Recently, spatial ...suppression, referred to as the increasing difficulty in quickly perceiving motion direction as the size of the moving stimulus increases, has attracted particular attention, when it was found to be positively related to psychometric intelligence. Due to the conceptual similarities of TRP and spatial suppression, the present study investigated their mutual interplay in the relation to psychometric intelligence in 273 young adults to better understand the reasons for these relationships. As in previous studies, psychometric intelligence was positively related to a latent variable representing TRP but, in contrast to previous reports, negatively to latent and manifest measures of spatial suppression. In a combined structural equation model, TRP still explained a substantial amount of variance in psychometric intelligence while the negative relation between spatial suppression and intelligence was completely explained by TRP. Thus, our findings confirmed TRP to be a robust predictor of psychometric intelligence but challenged the assumption of spatial suppression as a representation of general information processing efficiency as reflected in psychometric intelligence. Possible reasons for the contradictory findings on the relation between spatial suppression and psychometric intelligence are discussed.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Adaptation capacity is critical for maintaining cognition, yet it is understudied in groups at risk for dementia. Autonomic nervous system (ANS) is critical for neurovisceral integration and is a key ...contributor to adaptation capacity. To determine the central nervous system’s top-down regulation of ANS, we conducted a mechanistic randomized controlled trial study, using a 6-week processing speed and attention (PS/A)-targeted intervention. Eighty-four older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) were randomized to a 6-week PS/A-targeted intervention or an active control without PS/A. Utilizing repeated measures (i.e., PS/A test different from the intervention, resting and cognitive task-based ECG, and resting fMRI) at baseline, immediately post-intervention (post-test), and 6-month follow-up, we aimed to test whether PS/A causally influences vagal control of ANS via their shared central neural pathways in aMCI. We indexed vagal control of ANS using high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) extracted from ECG data. Functional brain connectivity patterns were extracted from fMRI using advanced statistical tools. Compared to the control group, the intervention group showed significant improvement in PS/A, HF-HRV, salience network (SN), central executive network (CEN), and frontal parietal network (FPN) connectivity at post-test; the effect on SN, CEN, and FPN remained at 6-month follow-up. Changes in PS/A and SN connectivity significantly predicted change in HF-HRV from baseline to post-test and/or 6-month-follow-up. Age, neurodegeneration, nor sex did not affect these relationships. This work provides novel support for top-down regulation of PS/A and associated SN on vagal control of ANS. Intervening PS/A may be a viable approach for promoting adaptation capacity in groups at risk for dementia.
•Top-down regulation of attention & processing speed (PS/A) on vagal control exists.•Salience network pathway is shared by PS/A and vagal control.•Intervening PS/A may be a viable approach for promoting adaptation capacity.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Atypical perceptual processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is well documented. In addition, growing evidence supports the hypothesis that an excitatory/inhibitory neurochemical imbalance might ...underlie ASD. Here we investigated putative behavioral consequences of the excitatory/inhibitory imbalance in the context of visual motion perception. As stimulus size increases, typical observers exhibit marked impairments in perceiving motion of high-contrast stimuli. This result, termed "spatial suppression," is believed to reflect inhibitory motion-processing mechanisms. Motion processing is also affected by gain control, an inhibitory mechanism that underlies saturation of neural responses at high contrast. Motivated by these behavioral correlates of inhibitory function, we investigated motion perception in human children with ASD (n = 20) and typical development (n = 26). At high contrast, both groups exhibited similar impairments in motion perception with increasing stimulus size, revealing no apparent differences in spatial suppression. However, there was a substantial enhancement of motion perception in ASD: children with ASD exhibited a consistent twofold improvement in perceiving motion. Hypothesizing that this enhancement might indicate abnormal weakening of response gain control, we repeated our measurements at low contrast, where the effects of gain control should be negligible. At low contrast, we indeed found no group differences in motion discrimination thresholds. These low-contrast results, however, revealed weaker spatial suppression in ASD, suggesting the possibility that gain control abnormalities in ASD might have masked spatial suppression differences at high contrast. Overall, we report a pattern of motion perception abnormalities in ASD that includes substantial enhancements at high contrast and is consistent with an underlying excitatory/inhibitory imbalance.
As stimulus size increases, motion direction of high-contrast patterns becomes increasingly harder to perceive. This counterintuitive behavioral result, termed "spatial suppression," is hypothesized ...to reflect center-surround antagonism-a receptive field property ubiquitous in sensory systems. Prior research proposed that spatial suppression of motion signals is a direct correlate of center-surround antagonism within cortical area MT. Here, we investigated whether human MT/V5 is indeed causally involved in spatial suppression of motion signals. The key assumption is that a disruption of neural mechanisms that play a critical role in spatial suppression could allow these normally suppressed motion signals to reach perceptual awareness. Thus, our hypothesis was that a disruption of MT/V5 should weaken spatial suppression and, consequently, improve motion perception of large, moving patterns. To disrupt MT/V5, we used offline 1 Hz transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-a method that temporarily attenuates normal functioning of the targeted cortex. Early visual areas were also targeted as a control site. The results supported our hypotheses and showed that disruption of MT/V5 improved motion discrimination of large, moving stimuli, presumably by weakening surround suppression strength. This effect was specific to MT/V5 stimulation and contralaterally presented stimuli. Evidently, the critical neural constraints limiting motion perception of large, high-contrast stimuli involve MT/V5. Additionally, our findings mimic spatial suppression deficits that are observed in several patient populations and implicate impaired MT/V5 processes as likely neural correlates for the reported perceptual abnormalities in the elderly, patients with schizophrenia and those with a history of depression.
PDF
