Normal development of pattern motion sensitivity in macaque monkeys

AbstractWe studied the development of sensitivity to complex motion using plaid patterns. We hypothesized, based on neurophysiological data showing a dearth of pattern direction–selective (PDS) cells in area medial temporal (MT) of infant macaques, that sensitivity to pattern motion would develop later than other forms of global motion sensitivity. We tested 10 macaque monkeys (Macaca nemestrina) ranging in age from 7 weeks to 109–160 weeks (adult). The monkeys discriminated horizontal from vertical pattern motion; sensitivity for one-dimensional (1D) direction discrimination and detection were tested as control tasks. The results show that pattern motion discrimination ability develops relatively late, between 10 and 18 weeks, while performance on the 1D control tasks was excellent at the earliest test ages. Plaid discrimination performance depends on both the speed and spatial scale of the underlying patterns. However, development is not limited by contrast sensitivity. These results support the idea that pattern motion perception depends on a different mechanism than other forms of global motion perception and are consistent with the idea that the representation of PDS neurons in MT may limit the development of complex motion perception.

Download Full-text

The chromatic input to global motion perception

Visual Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/s0952523803204077 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 421-428 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

ALEXA I. RUPPERTSBERG ◽

SOPHIE M. WUERGER ◽

MARCO BERTAMINI

Keyword(s):

Motion Perception ◽

Contrast Threshold ◽

Motion Processing ◽

Global Motion ◽

Complex Motion ◽

Motion Mechanism ◽

Parvocellular Pathway ◽

Simple Detection ◽

Contrast Thresholds ◽

Luminance Range

For over 30 years there has been a controversy over whether color-defined motion can be perceived by the human visual system. Some results suggest that there is no chromatic motion mechanism at all, whereas others do find evidence for a purely chromatic motion mechanism. Here we examine the chromatic input to global motion processing for a range of color directions in the photopic luminance range. We measure contrast thresholds for global motion identification and simple detection using sparse random-dot kinematograms. The results show a discrepancy between the two chromatic axes: whereas it is possible for observers to perform the global motion task for stimuli modulated along the red–green axis, we could not assess the contrast threshold required for stimuli modulated along the yellowish-violet axis. The contrast required for detection for both axes, however, are well below the contrasts required for global motion identification. We conclude that there is a significant red–green input to global motion processing providing further evidence for the involvement of the parvocellular pathway. The lack of S-cone input to global motion processing suggests that the koniocellular pathway mediates the detection but not the processing of complex motion for our parameter range.

Download Full-text

Development of sensitivity to visual motion in macaque monkeys

Visual Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/s0952523804216054 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 21 (6) ◽

pp. 851-859 ◽

Cited By ~ 64

Author(s):

LYNNE KIORPES ◽

J. ANTHONY MOVSHON

Keyword(s):

Contrast Sensitivity ◽

Visual Motion ◽

Spatial Vision ◽

Macaca Nemestrina ◽

First Year ◽

Motion Sensitivity ◽

Macaque Monkeys ◽

Spatial Frequencies ◽

Visual Areas ◽

The Relationship

The development of spatial vision is relatively well documented in human and nonhuman primates. However, little is known about the development of sensitivity to motion. We measured the development of sensitivity to direction of motion, and the relationship between motion and contrast sensitivity in macaque monkeys as a function of age. Monkeys (Macaca nemestrina, aged between 10 days and 3 years) discriminated direction of motion in random-dot kinematograms. The youngest monkeys showed directionally selective orienting and the ability to integrate motion signals at large dot displacements and fast speeds. With age, coherence sensitivity improved for all spatial and temporal dot displacements tested. The temporal interval between the dots was far less important than the spatial offset in determining the animals' performance at all but the youngest ages. Motion sensitivity improved well beyond the end of the first postnatal year, when mid-spatial-frequency contrast sensitivity reached asymptote, and continued for at least 3 years. Sensitivity to contrast at high spatial frequencies also continued to develop beyond the end of the first year. We conclude that the development of motion sensitivity depends on mechanisms beyond the low-level filters presumed to limit acuity and contrast sensitivity, and most likely reflects the function of extrastriate visual areas.

Download Full-text

The role of cortical area V5/MT+ in speed-tuned directional anisotropies in global motion perception

Vision Research ◽

10.1016/j.visres.2006.12.017 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 47 (7) ◽

pp. 887-898 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Deborah Giaschi ◽

Amy Zwicker ◽

Simon Au Young ◽

Bruce Bjornson

Keyword(s):

Motion Perception ◽

Cortical Area ◽

Global Motion

Download Full-text

The Influence of the Psychophysical Assessment Paradigm on Pitch Discrimination for Adults (and a Pilot Sample of Children)

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.1177/00315125211044063 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003151252110440

Author(s):

Ashley G. Flagge ◽

Lucile Puranen ◽

Madhuri S. Mulekar

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Performance ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Adult Women ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

Discrimination Accuracy ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Research Paradigms ◽

Pilot Sample ◽

Pattern Of Performance

Pitch discrimination ability has been of research interest due to its potential relationship to language and literacy. However, assessment protocols for pitch discrimination have varied widely. Prior studies with both children and adults have produced conflicting performance findings across different pitch discrimination research paradigms, though they have consistently shown that discrimination accuracy is based on the psychophysical assessment method applied. In the present study, we examined pitch discrimination performance among convenience samples of 19 adult women and ten female children across six different adaptive psychophysical measurement conditions. We found pitch discrimination performance in both groups to be impacted by the measurement paradigm such that, while adults exhibited significantly better discrimination thresholds than did children, the pattern of performance across the six conditions was similar for both the adults and the children.

Download Full-text

Supplemental Material for The False Aperture Problem: Global Motion Perception Without Integration of Local Motion Signals

Psychological Review ◽

10.1037/rev0000347.supp ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Motion Perception ◽

Global Motion ◽

Local Motion ◽

Aperture Problem

Download Full-text

Behavioral measurement of temporal contrast sensitivity development in macaque monkeys (Macaca nemestrina)

Vision Research ◽

10.1016/j.visres.2008.01.031 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 48 (11) ◽

pp. 1335-1344 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Kara A. Stavros ◽

Lynne Kiorpes

Keyword(s):

Contrast Sensitivity ◽

Macaca Nemestrina ◽

Temporal Contrast ◽

Macaque Monkeys ◽

Behavioral Measurement

Download Full-text

The direction after-effect is a global motion phenomenon

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.190114 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 190114

Author(s):

William Curran ◽

Lee Beattie ◽

Delfina Bilello ◽

Laura A. Coulter ◽

Jade A. Currie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Motion Processing ◽

Global Motion ◽

Local Motion ◽

Motion Direction ◽

Processing Level ◽

True Motion ◽

Pattern Motion ◽

Moving Stimulus ◽

After Effect

Prior experience influences visual perception. For example, extended viewing of a moving stimulus results in the misperception of a subsequent stimulus's motion direction—the direction after-effect (DAE). There has been an ongoing debate regarding the locus of the neural mechanisms underlying the DAE. We know the mechanisms are cortical, but there is uncertainty about where in the visual cortex they are located—at relatively early local motion processing stages, or at later global motion stages. We used a unikinetic plaid as an adapting stimulus, then measured the DAE experienced with a drifting random dot test stimulus. A unikinetic plaid comprises a static grating superimposed on a drifting grating of a different orientation. Observers cannot see the true motion direction of the moving component; instead they see pattern motion running parallel to the static component. The pattern motion of unikinetic plaids is encoded at the global processing level—specifically, in cortical areas MT and MST—and the local motion component is encoded earlier. We measured the direction after-effect as a function of the plaid's local and pattern motion directions. The DAE was induced by the plaid's pattern motion, but not by its component motion. This points to the neural mechanisms underlying the DAE being located at the global motion processing level, and no earlier than area MT.

Download Full-text