scholarly journals Expectations about motion direction affect perception and anticipatory smooth pursuit differently

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuyun Wu ◽  
Austin C. Rothwell ◽  
Miriam Spering ◽  
Anna Montagnini
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Visual Motion Perception ◽  
Low Coherence ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Velocity

AbstractSmooth pursuit eye movements and visual motion perception rely on the integration of current sensory signals with past experience. Experience shapes our expectation of current visual events and can drive eye movement responses made in anticipation of a target, such as anticipatory pursuit. Previous research revealed consistent effects of expectation on anticipatory pursuit—eye movements follow the expected target direction or speed—and contrasting effects on motion perception, but most studies considered either eye movement or perceptual responses. The current study directly compared effects of direction expectation on perception and anticipatory pursuit within the same direction discrimination task to investigate whether both types of responses are affected similarly or differently. Observers (n = 10) viewed high-coherence random-dot kinematograms (RDKs) moving rightward and leftward with a probability of 50, 70, or 90% in a given block of trials to build up an expectation of motion direction. They were asked to judge motion direction of interleaved low-coherence RDKs (0-15%). Perceptual judgements were compared to changes in anticipatory pursuit eye movements as a function of probability. Results show that anticipatory pursuit velocity scaled with probability and followed direction expectation (attraction bias), whereas perceptual judgments were biased opposite to direction expectation (repulsion bias). Control experiments suggest that the repulsion bias in perception was not caused by retinal slip induced by anticipatory pursuit, or by motion adaptation. We conclude that direction expectation can be processed differently for perception and anticipatory pursuit.

The effect of a moving distractor on the initiation of smooth-pursuit eye movements

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent P. Ferrera ◽  
Stephen G. Lisberger
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Response Preparation ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Motion Processing

AbstractAs a step toward understanding the mechanism by which targets are selected for smooth-pursuit eye movements, we examined the behavior of the pursuit system when monkeys were presented with two discrete moving visual targets. Two rhesus monkeys were trained to select a small moving target identified by its color in the presence of a moving distractor of another color. Smooth-pursuit eye movements were quantified in terms of the latency of the eye movement and the initial eye acceleration profile. We have previously shown that the latency of smooth pursuit, which is normally around 100 ms, can be extended to 150 ms or shortened to 85 ms depending on whether there is a distractor moving in the opposite or same direction, respectively, relative to the direction of the target. We have now measured this effect for a 360 deg range of distractor directions, and distractor speeds of 5–45 deg/s. We have also examined the effect of varying the spatial separation and temporal asynchrony between target and distractor. The results indicate that the effect of the distractor on the latency of pursuit depends on its direction of motion, and its spatial and temporal proximity to the target, but depends very little on the speed of the distractor. Furthermore, under the conditions of these experiments, the direction of the eye movement that is emitted in response to two competing moving stimuli is not a vectorial combination of the stimulus motions, but is solely determined by the direction of the target. The results are consistent with a competitive model for smooth-pursuit target selection and suggest that the competition takes place at a stage of the pursuit pathway that is between visual-motion processing and motor-response preparation.

scholarly journals Keep your eyes on the ball: smooth pursuit eye movements enhance prediction of visual motion

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
pp. 1756-1767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Spering ◽  
Alexander C. Schütz ◽  
Doris I. Braun ◽  
Karl R. Gegenfurtner
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Perceptual Judgment ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Retinal Stimulation

Success of motor behavior often depends on the ability to predict the path of moving objects. Here we asked whether tracking a visual object with smooth pursuit eye movements helps to predict its motion direction. We developed a paradigm, “eye soccer,” in which observers had to either track or fixate a visual target (ball) and judge whether it would have hit or missed a stationary vertical line segment (goal). Ball and goal were presented briefly for 100–500 ms and disappeared from the screen together before the perceptual judgment was prompted. In pursuit conditions, the ball moved towards the goal; in fixation conditions, the goal moved towards the stationary ball, resulting in similar retinal stimulation during pursuit and fixation. We also tested the condition in which the goal was fixated and the ball moved. Motion direction prediction was significantly better in pursuit than in fixation trials, regardless of whether ball or goal served as fixation target. In both fixation and pursuit trials, prediction performance was better when eye movements were accurate. Performance also increased with shorter ball-goal distance and longer presentation duration. A longer trajectory did not affect performance. During pursuit, an efference copy signal might provide additional motion information, leading to the advantage in motion prediction.

Contrast and Assimilation in Motion Perception and Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 1355-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Spering ◽  
Karl R. Gegenfurtner
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
Velocity Estimation ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Perceived Velocity

The analysis of visual motion serves many different functions ranging from object motion perception to the control of self-motion. The perception of visual motion and the oculomotor tracking of a moving object are known to be closely related and are assumed to be controlled by shared brain areas. We compared perceived velocity and the velocity of smooth pursuit eye movements in human observers in a paradigm that required the segmentation of target object motion from context motion. In each trial, a pursuit target and a visual context were independently perturbed simultaneously to briefly increase or decrease in speed. Observers had to accurately track the target and estimate target speed during the perturbation interval. Here we show that the same motion signals are processed in fundamentally different ways for perception and steady-state smooth pursuit eye movements. For the computation of perceived velocity, motion of the context was subtracted from target motion (motion contrast), whereas pursuit velocity was determined by the motion average (motion assimilation). We conclude that the human motion system uses these computations to optimally accomplish different functions: image segmentation for object motion perception and velocity estimation for the control of smooth pursuit eye movements.

Effects of directional expectations on motion perception and pursuit eye movements

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD J. KRAUZLIS ◽  
SCOTT A. ADLER
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Prior Information ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Display ◽  
Early Processing ◽  
Dot Motion

Expectations about future motions can influence both perceptual judgements and pursuit eye movements. However, it is not known whether these two effects are due to shared processing, or to separate mechanisms with similar properties. We have addressed this question by providing subjects with prior information about the likely direction of motion in an upcoming random-dot motion display and measuring both the perceptual judgements and pursuit eye movements elicited by the stimulus. We quantified the subjects' responses by computing oculometric curves from their pursuit eye movements and psychometric curves from their perceptual decisions. Our results show that directional cues caused similar shifts in both the oculometric and psychometric curves toward the expected motion direction, with little change in the shapes of the curves. Prior information therefore biased the outcome of both eye movement and perceptual decisions without systematically changing their thresholds. We also found that eye movement and perceptual decisions tended to be the same on a trial-by-trial basis, at a higher frequency than would be expected by chance. Furthermore, the effects of prior information were evident during pursuit initiation, as well as during pursuit maintenance, indicating that prior information likely influenced the early processing of visual motion. We conclude that, in our experiments, expectations caused similar effects on both pursuit and perception by altering the activity of visual motion detectors that are read out by both the oculomotor and perceptual systems. Applying cognitive factors such as expectations at relatively early stages of visual processing could act to coordinate the metrics of eye movements with perceptual judgements.

scholarly journals Role of Primate Cerebellar Hemisphere in Voluntary Eye Movement Control Revealed by Lesion Effects

2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 934-947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masafumi Ohki ◽  
Hiromasa Kitazawa ◽  
Takahito Hiramatsu ◽  
Kimitake Kaga ◽  
Taiko Kitamura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Cerebellar Hemisphere ◽  
Target Velocity ◽  
Eye Movement Control ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Catch Up

The anatomical connection between the frontal eye field and the cerebellar hemispheric lobule VII (H-VII) suggests a potential role of the hemisphere in voluntary eye movement control. To reveal the involvement of the hemisphere in smooth pursuit and saccade control, we made a unilateral lesion around H-VII and examined its effects in three Macaca fuscata that were trained to pursue visually a small target. To the step (3°)-ramp (5–20°/s) target motion, the monkeys usually showed an initial pursuit eye movement at a latency of 80–140 ms and a small catch-up saccade at 140–220 ms that was followed by a postsaccadic pursuit eye movement that roughly matched the ramp target velocity. After unilateral cerebellar hemispheric lesioning, the initial pursuit eye movements were impaired, and the velocities of the postsaccadic pursuit eye movements decreased. The onsets of 5° visually guided saccades to the stationary target were delayed, and their amplitudes showed a tendency of increased trial-to-trial variability but never became hypo- or hypermetric. Similar tendencies were observed in the onsets and amplitudes of catch-up saccades. The adaptation of open-loop smooth pursuit velocity, tested by a step increase in target velocity for a brief period, was impaired. These lesion effects were recognized in all directions, particularly in the ipsiversive direction. A recovery was observed at 4 wk postlesion for some of these lesion effects. These results suggest that the cerebellar hemispheric region around lobule VII is involved in the control of smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements.

Role of the Vermal Cerebellum in Visually Guided Eye Movements and Visual Motion Perception

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Thier ◽  
Akshay Markanday
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Cerebellar Nuclei ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Past Performance ◽  
Visual Motion Perception ◽  
Oculomotor Vermis ◽  
Retinal Information

The cerebellar cortex is a crystal-like structure consisting of an almost endless repetition of a canonical microcircuit that applies the same computational principle to different inputs. The output of this transformation is broadcasted to extracerebellar structures by way of the deep cerebellar nuclei. Visually guided eye movements are accommodated by different parts of the cerebellum. This review primarily discusses the role of the oculomotor part of the vermal cerebellum [the oculomotor vermis (OMV)] in the control of visually guided saccades and smooth-pursuit eye movements. Both types of eye movements require the mapping of retinal information onto motor vectors, a transformation that is optimized by the OMV, considering information on past performance. Unlike the role of the OMV in the guidance of eye movements, the contribution of the adjoining vermal cortex to visual motion perception is nonmotor and involves a cerebellar influence on information processing in the cerebral cortex.

scholarly journals Spatial and Temporal Integration of Visual Motion Signals for Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements in Monkeys

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 2013-2025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie C. Osborne ◽  
Stephen G. Lisberger
Keyword(s):  
Random Walk ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Linear Filter ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Averaging ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements

To probe how the brain integrates visual motion signals to guide behavior, we analyzed the smooth pursuit eye movements evoked by target motion with a stochastic component. When each dot of a texture executed an independent random walk such that speed or direction varied across the spatial extent of the target, pursuit variance increased as a function of the variance of visual pattern motion. Noise in either target direction or speed increased the variance of both eye speed and direction, implying a common neural noise source for estimating target speed and direction. Spatial averaging was inefficient for targets with >20 dots. Together these data suggest that pursuit performance is limited by the properties of spatial averaging across a noisy population of sensory neurons rather than across the physical stimulus. When targets executed a spatially uniform random walk in time around a central direction of motion, an optimized linear filter that describes the transformation of target motion into eye motion accounted for ∼50% of the variance in pursuit. Filters had widths of ∼25 ms, much longer than the impulse response of the eye, and filter shape depended on both the range and correlation time of motion signals, suggesting that filters were products of sensory processing. By quantifying the effects of different levels of stimulus noise on pursuit, we have provided rigorous constraints for understanding sensory population decoding. We have shown how temporal and spatial integration of sensory signals converts noisy population responses into precise motor responses.

Predicting 2D Target Velocity Cannot Help 2D Motion Integration for Smooth Pursuit Initiation

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (6) ◽  
pp. 3545-3550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Montagnini ◽  
Miriam Spering ◽  
Guillaume S. Masson
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
Line Orientation ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Direction Error ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Initiation ◽  
Motion Integration ◽  
Tracking Direction

Smooth pursuit eye movements reflect the temporal dynamics of bidimensional (2D) visual motion integration. When tracking a single, tilted line, initial pursuit direction is biased toward unidimensional (1D) edge motion signals, which are orthogonal to the line orientation. Over 200 ms, tracking direction is slowly corrected to finally match the 2D object motion during steady-state pursuit. We now show that repetition of line orientation and/or motion direction does not eliminate the transient tracking direction error nor change the time course of pursuit correction. Nonetheless, multiple successive presentations of a single orientation/direction condition elicit robust anticipatory pursuit eye movements that always go in the 2D object motion direction not the 1D edge motion direction. These results demonstrate that predictive signals about target motion cannot be used for an efficient integration of ambiguous velocity signals at pursuit initiation.

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