Smoothness of stimulus motion can affect vection strength

Continuous change of illuminance over retinal area in accordance with the sinusoidal function was studied as a stimulus for the human visual system. Its efficiency in controlling pursuit eye movements was compared with that of a stepwise luminance function (square wave). Such distributions of luminance were generated on a cathode ray screen (wavelength at the eye 9° and 3°) and were given a small translatory motion (2° – 12′). Ss were instructed to follow the moving pattern with pursuit eye movements. There is no difference in performance between the two types of brightness distributions. A stimulus motion of 24′ was sufficient to produce full evidence of eye tracking in all Ss also from the contour-free sinusoidal pattern. This means that the brightness change in every point of the CRT screen was far below the retinal sensitivity threshold at the illuminance level used. Thus a summation effect occurs. This was taken as a support for an hypothesis about “ordinal” stimulation. Arguments from modern neurophysiology are introduced and yield further support for the conclusion.

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When brain damage “improves” perception: neglect patients can localize motion-shifted probes better than controls

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00757.2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 114 (6) ◽

pp. 3351-3358 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Stefania de Vito ◽

Marine Lunven ◽

Clémence Bourlon ◽

Christophe Duret ◽

Patrick Cavanagh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Right Hemisphere ◽

Visual Fields ◽

Critical Factor ◽

Significant Shift ◽

Stimulus Motion ◽

Attentional Processes ◽

Position Shift ◽

The Right ◽

High Level ◽

Better Than

When we look at bars flashed against a moving background, we see them displaced in the direction of the upcoming motion (flash-grab illusion). It is still debated whether these motion-induced position shifts are low-level, reflexive consequences of stimulus motion or high-level compensation engaged only when the stimulus is tracked with attention. To investigate whether attention is a causal factor for this striking illusory position shift, we evaluated the flash-grab illusion in six patients with damaged attentional networks in the right hemisphere and signs of left visual neglect and six age-matched controls. With stimuli in the top, right, and bottom visual fields, neglect patients experienced the same amount of illusion as controls. However, patients showed no significant shift when the test was presented in their left hemifield, despite having equally precise judgments. Thus, paradoxically, neglect patients perceived the position of the flash more veridically in their neglected hemifield. These results suggest that impaired attentional processes can reduce the interaction between a moving background and a superimposed stationary flash, and indicate that attention is a critical factor in generating the illusory motion-induced shifts of location.

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Stimulus Motion Propels Traveling Waves in Binocular Rivalry

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0000739 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 2 (8) ◽

pp. e739 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Tomas Knapen ◽

Raymond van Ee ◽

Randolph Blake

Keyword(s):

Traveling Waves ◽

Binocular Rivalry ◽

Stimulus Motion

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Interspike Interval Based Filtering of Directional Selective Retinal Ganglion Cells Spike Trains

Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience ◽

10.1155/2012/918030 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Aurel Vasile Martiniuc ◽

Alois Knoll

Keyword(s):

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Visual Stimulus ◽

Visual Information ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Neuronal Response ◽

Spike Trains ◽

Retinal Ganglion ◽

Stimulus Motion ◽

Information Rates ◽

Grating Bars

The information regarding visual stimulus is encoded in spike trains at the output of retina by retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Among these, the directional selective cells (DSRGC) are signaling the direction of stimulus motion. DSRGCs' spike trains show accentuated periods of short interspike intervals (ISIs) framed by periods of isolated spikes. Here we use two types of visual stimulus, white noise and drifting bars, and show that short ISI spikes of DSRGCs spike trains are more often correlated to their preferred stimulus feature (that is, the direction of stimulus motion) and carry more information than longer ISI spikes. Firstly, our results show that correlation between stimulus and recorded neuronal response is best at short ISI spiking activity and decrease as ISI becomes larger. We then used grating bars stimulus and found that as ISI becomes shorter the directional selectivity is better and information rates are higher. Interestingly, for the less encountered type of DSRGC, known as ON-DSRGC, short ISI distribution and information rates revealed consistent differences when compared with the other directional selective cell type, the ON-OFF DSRGC. However, these findings suggest that ISI-based temporal filtering integrates a mechanism for visual information processing at the output of retina toward higher stages within early visual system.

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Response to Motion in Extrastriate Area MSTl: Disparity Sensitivity

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1999.82.5.2462 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 82 (5) ◽

pp. 2462-2475 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Satoshi Eifuku ◽

Robert H. Wurtz

Keyword(s):

Receptive Field ◽

Tuning Curve ◽

Receptive Fields ◽

Relative Difference ◽

Moving Object ◽

Absolute Difference ◽

Stimulus Motion ◽

Temporal Area ◽

Moving Stimuli ◽

Medial Superior Temporal

Many neurons in the lateral-ventral region of the medial superior temporal area (MSTl) have a clear center surround separation in their receptive fields. Either moving or stationary stimuli in the surround modulates the response to moving stimuli in the center, and this modulation could facilitate the perceptual segmentation of a moving object from its background. Another mechanism that could facilitate such segmentation would be sensitivity to binocular disparity in the center and surround regions of the receptive fields of these neurons. We therefore investigated the sensitivity of these MSTl neurons to disparity ranging from three degrees crossed disparity (near) to three degrees uncrossed disparity (far) applied to both the center and the surround regions. Many neurons showed clear disparity sensitivity to stimulus motion in the center of the receptive field. About [Formula: see text] of 104 neurons had a clear peak in their response, whereas another [Formula: see text] had broader tuning. Monocular stimulation abolished the tuning. The prevalence of cells broadly tuned to near and far disparity and the reversal of preferred directions at different disparities observed in MSTd were not found in MSTl. A stationary surround at zero disparity simply modulated up or down the response to moving stimuli at different disparities in the receptive field (RF) center but did not alter the disparity tuning curve. When the RF center motion was held at zero disparity and the disparity of the stationary surround was varied, some surround disparities produced greater modulation of MSTl neuron response than did others. Some neurons with different disparity preferences in center and surround responded best to the relative disparity differences between center and surround, whereas others were related to the absolute difference between center and surround. The combination of modulatory surrounds and the sensitivity to relative difference between center and surround disparity make these MSTl neurons particularly well suited for the segmentation of a moving object from the background.

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Dynamic Illusory Size-Contrast: A relative-size illusion modulated by stimulus motion and eye movements

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/14.10.890 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 14 (10) ◽

pp. 890-890

Author(s):

R. Mruczek ◽

C. Blair ◽

G. Caplovitz

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Relative Size ◽

Stimulus Motion ◽

Size Contrast

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Relative contributions of stimulus motion and VOR to eye movement during gaze pursuit

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/12.9.993 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 993-993

Author(s):

J. Frey ◽

A. Tavassoli ◽

D. Ringach

Keyword(s):

Eye Movement ◽

Stimulus Motion

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A Moment to Reflect upon Perceptual Synchrony

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2006.18.10.1663 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 18 (10) ◽

pp. 1663-1665 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Mark A. Elliott ◽

Zhuanghua Shi ◽

Sean D. Kelly

Keyword(s):

Visual Space ◽

Temporal Correlation ◽

Visual Signals ◽

Direct Result ◽

Visual Features ◽

Potential Solution ◽

Binding Problem ◽

Stimulus Motion ◽

Neuronal Synchronization ◽

Highly Correlated

How does neuronal activity bring about the interpretation of visual space in terms of objects or complex perceptual events? If they group, simple visual features can bring about the integration of spikes from neurons responding to different features to within a few milliseconds. Considered as a potential solution to the “binding problem,” it is suggested that neuronal synchronization is the glue for binding together different features of the same object. This idea receives some support from correlated- and periodic-stimulus motion paradigms, both of which suggest that the segregation of a figure from ground is a direct result of the temporal correlation of visual signals. One could say that perception of a highly correlated visual structure permits space to be bound in time. However, on closer analysis, the concept of perceptual synchrony is insufficient to explain the conditions under which events will be seen as simultaneous. Instead, the grouping effects ascribed to perceptual synchrony are better explained in terms of the intervals of time over which stimulus events integrate and seem to occur simultaneously. This point is supported by the equivalence of some of these measures with well-established estimates of the perceptual moment. However, it is time in extension and not the instantaneous that may best describe how seemingly simultaneous features group. This means that studies of perceptual synchrony are insufficient to address the binding problem.

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