scholarly journals Optic Flow: A History

i-Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 204166952110557
Author(s):  
Diederick C. Niehorster
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Global Pattern ◽  
Self Motion

The concept of optic flow, a global pattern of visual motion that is both caused by and signals self-motion, is canonically ascribed to James Gibson's 1950 book “ The Perception of the Visual World.” There have, however, been several other developments of this concept, chiefly by Gwilym Grindley and Edward Calvert. Based on rarely referenced scientific literature and archival research, this article describes the development of the concept of optic flow by the aforementioned authors and several others. The article furthermore presents the available evidence for interactions between these authors, focusing on whether parts of Gibson's proposal were derived from the work of Grindley or Calvert. While Grindley's work may have made Gibson aware of the geometrical facts of optic flow, Gibson's work is not derivative of Grindley's. It is furthermore shown that Gibson only learned of Calvert's work in 1956, almost a decade after Gibson first published his proposal. In conclusion, the development of the concept of optic flow presents an intriguing example of convergent thought in the progress of science.

scholarly journals Activity Strength within Optic Flow-Sensitive Cortical Regions Is Associated with Visual Path Integration Accuracy in Aged Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 245
Author(s):  
Lauren Zajac ◽  
Ronald Killiany
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Optic Flow ◽  
Path Integration ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Global Pattern ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Self Motion

Spatial navigation is a cognitive skill fundamental to successful interaction with our environment, and aging is associated with weaknesses in this skill. Identifying mechanisms underlying individual differences in navigation ability in aged adults is important to understanding these age-related weaknesses. One understudied factor involved in spatial navigation is self-motion perception. Important to self-motion perception is optic flow–the global pattern of visual motion experienced while moving through our environment. A set of optic flow-sensitive (OF-sensitive) cortical regions was defined in a group of young (n = 29) and aged (n = 22) adults. Brain activity was measured in this set of OF-sensitive regions and control regions using functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants performed visual path integration (VPI) and turn counting (TC) tasks. Aged adults had stronger activity in RMT+ during both tasks compared to young adults. Stronger activity in the OF-sensitive regions LMT+ and RpVIP during VPI, not TC, was associated with greater VPI accuracy in aged adults. The activity strength in these two OF-sensitive regions measured during VPI explained 42% of the variance in VPI task performance in aged adults. The results of this study provide novel support for global motion processing as a mechanism underlying visual path integration in normal aging.

scholarly journals Spike interval coding of translatory optic flow and depth from motion in the fly visual system

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kit D. Longden ◽  
Martina Wicklein ◽  
Benjamin J. Hardcastle ◽  
Stephen J. Huston ◽  
Holger G. Krapp
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Spike Burst ◽  
Cluttered Environments ◽  
Single Spike ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
Spike Bursts

SummaryMany animals use the visual motion generated by travelling in a line, the translatory optic flow, to successfully navigate obstacles: near objects appear larger and to move more quickly than distant ones. Flies are experts at navigating cluttered environments, and while their visual processing of rotatory optic flow is understood in exquisite detail, how they process translatory optic flow remains a mystery. Here, we present novel cell types that have motion receptive fields matched to translation self-motion, the vertical translation (VT) cells. One of these, the VT1 cell, encodes forwards sideslip self-motion, and fires action potentials in clusters of spikes, spike bursts. We show that the spike burst coding is size and speed-tuned, and is selectively modulated by parallax motion, the relative motion experienced during translation. These properties are spatially organized, so that the cell is most excited by clutter rather than isolated objects. When the fly is presented with a simulation of flying past an elevated object, the spike burst activity is modulated by the height of the object, and the single spike rate is unaffected. When the moving object alone is experienced, the cell is weakly driven. Meanwhile, the VT2-3 cells have motion receptive fields matched to the lift axis. In conjunction with previously described horizontal cells, the VT cells have the properties required for the fly to successfully navigate clutter and encode its movements along near cardinal axes of thrust, lift and forward sideslip.

scholarly journals An optimal population code for global motion estimation in local direction-selective cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Henning ◽  
Giordano Ramos-Traslosheros ◽  
Burak Gür ◽  
Marion Silies
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Ganglion Cells ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Flow Fields ◽  
Population Code ◽  
Complex Flow ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Local Direction ◽  
Self Motion

Nervous systems allocate computational resources to match stimulus statistics. However, the physical information that needs to be processed depends on the animal's own behavior. For example, visual motion patterns induced by self-motion provide essential information for navigation. How behavioral constraints affect neural processing is not known. Here we show that, at the population level, local direction-selective T4/T5 neurons in Drosophila represent optic flow fields generated by self-motion, reminiscent to a population code in retinal ganglion cells in vertebrates. Whereas in vertebrates four different cell types encode different optic flow fields, the four uniformly tuned T4/T5 subtypes described previously represent a local snapshot. As a population, six T4/T5 subtypes encode different axes of self-motion. This representation might serve to efficiently encode more complex flow fields generated during flight. Thus, a population code for optic flow appears to be a general coding principle of visual systems, but matching the animal's individual ethological constraints.

scholarly journals When gravity is not where it should be: How perceived orientation affects visual self-motion processing

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0243381
Author(s):  
Meaghan McManus ◽  
Laurence R. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Body Posture ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
Orientation Cues ◽  
Trunk Orientation ◽  
Self Motion

Human perception is based on expectations. We expect visual upright and gravity upright, sensed through vision, vestibular and other sensory systems, to agree. Equally, we expect that visual and vestibular information about self-motion will correspond. What happens when these assumptions are violated? Tilting a person from upright so that gravity is not where it should be impacts both visually induced self-motion (vection) and the perception of upright. How might the two be connected? Using virtual reality, we varied the strength of visual orientation cues, and hence the probability of participants experiencing a visual reorientation illusion (VRI) in which visual cues to orientation dominate gravity, using an oriented corridor and a starfield while also varying head-on-trunk orientation and body posture. The effectiveness of the optic flow in simulating self-motion was assessed by how much visual motion was required to evoke the perception that the participant had reached the position of a previously presented target. VRI was assessed by questionnaire When participants reported higher levels of VRI they also required less visual motion to evoke the sense of traveling through a given distance, regardless of head or body posture, or the type of visual environment. We conclude that experiencing a VRI, in which visual-vestibular conflict is resolved and the direction of upright is reinterpreted, affects the effectiveness of optic flow at simulating motion through the environment. Therefore, any apparent effect of head or body posture or type of environment are largely indirect effects related instead, to the level of VRI experienced by the observer. We discuss potential mechanisms for this such as reinterpreting gravity information or altering the weighting of orientation cues.

scholarly journals Common causation and offset effects in human visual-inertial heading direction integration

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 1369-1379
Author(s):  
Raul Rodriguez ◽  
Benjamin T. Crane
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Random Order ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Heading Direction ◽  
Integrated Or ◽  
Self Motion

Movement direction can be determined from a combination of visual and inertial cues. Visual motion (optic flow) can represent self-motion through a fixed environment or environmental motion relative to an observer. Simultaneous visual and inertial heading cues present the question of whether the cues have a common cause (i.e., should be integrated) or whether they should be considered independent. This was studied in eight healthy human subjects who experienced 12 visual and inertial headings in the horizontal plane divided in 30° increments. The headings were estimated in two unisensory and six multisensory trial blocks. Each unisensory block included 72 stimulus presentations, while each multisensory block included 144 stimulus presentations, including every possible combination of visual and inertial headings in random order. After each multisensory stimulus, subjects reported their perception of visual and inertial headings as congruous (i.e., having common causation) or not. In the multisensory trial blocks, subjects also reported visual or inertial heading direction (3 trial blocks for each). For aligned visual-inertial headings, the rate of common causation was higher during alignment in cardinal than noncardinal directions. When visual and inertial stimuli were separated by 30°, the rate of reported common causation remained >50%, but it decreased to 15% or less for separation of ≥90°. The inertial heading was biased toward the visual heading by 11–20° for separations of 30–120°. Thus there was sensory integration even in conditions without reported common causation. The visual heading was minimally influenced by inertial direction. When trials with common causation perception were compared with those without, inertial heading perception had a stronger bias toward visual stimulus direction. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Optic flow ambiguously represents self-motion or environmental motion. When these are in different directions, it is uncertain whether these are integrated into a common perception or not. This study looks at that issue by determining whether the two modalities are consistent and by measuring their perceived directions to get a degree of influence. The visual stimulus can have significant influence on the inertial stimulus even when they are perceived as inconsistent.

scholarly journals Optic Flow: Perceiving and Acting in a 3-D World

i-Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 204166952098725
Author(s):  
Brian Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Optic Flow ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Perception And Action ◽  
Ecological Approach ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
The Many ◽  
Concept Of Information ◽  
Radical Ideas

In 1979, James Gibson completed his third and final book “The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception”. That book can be seen as the synthesis of the many radical ideas he proposed over the previous 30 years – the concept of information and its sufficiency, the necessary link between perception and action, the need to see perception in relation to an animal's particular ecological niche and the meanings (affordances) offered by the visual world. One of the fundamental concepts that lies beyond all of Gibson's thinking is that of optic flow: the constantly changing patterns of light that reach our eyes and the information it provides. My purpose in writing this paper has been to evaluate the legacy of Gibson's conceptual ideas and to consider how his ideas have influenced and changed the way we study perception.

Children’s perceptual sensitivity to optic flow-like visual motion differs from adults.

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 1810-1821
Author(s):  
Yiming Qian ◽  
Andrea R. Seisler ◽  
Rick O. Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Perceptual Sensitivity

How to use body tilt for the simulation of linear self motion

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 375-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.L. Groen ◽  
W. Bles
Keyword(s):  
Visual Motion ◽  
Detection Threshold ◽  
Stimulus Frequency ◽  
Flight Simulation ◽  
Body Tilt ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Motion Percept ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
Rate Limit ◽  
Pitch Tilt

We examined to what extent body tilt may augment the perception of visually simulated linear self acceleration. Fourteen subjects judged visual motion profiles of fore-aft motion at four different frequencies between 0.04âĂŞ0.33 Hz, and at three different acceleration amplitudes (0.44, 0.88 and 1.76 m / s 2 ). Simultaneously, subjects were tilted backward and forward about their pitch axis. The amplitude of pitch tilt was systematically varied. Using a two-alternative-forced-choice paradigm, psychometric curves were calculated in order to determine: 1) the minimum tilt amplitude required to generate a linear self-motion percept in more than 50% of the cases, and 2) the maximum tilt amplitude at which rotation remains sub-threshold in more than 50% of the cases. The results showed that the simulation of linear self motion became more realistic with the application of whole body tilt, as long as the tilt rate remained under the detection threshold of about 3 deg/s. This value is in close agreement with the empirical rate limit commonly used in flight simulation. The minimum required motion cue was inversely proportional to stimulus frequency, and increased with the amplitude of the visual displacement (rather than acceleration). As a consequence, the range of useful tilt stimuli became more critical with increasing stimulus frequency. We conclude that this psychophysical approach reveals valid parameters for motion driving algorithms used in motion base simulators.

scholarly journals The Responses of VIP Neurons Are Sufficiently Sensitive to Support Heading Judgments

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 1865-1873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Zhang ◽  
Kenneth H. Britten
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Roc Analysis ◽  
Operating Characteristic ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Behavioral Thresholds ◽  
Heading Direction ◽  
Ventral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Self Motion

The ventral intraparietal area (VIP) of the macaque monkey is thought to be involved in judging heading direction based on optic flow. We recorded neuronal discharges in VIP while monkeys were performing a two-alternative, forced-choice heading discrimination task to relate quantitatively the activity of VIP neurons to monkeys' perceptual choices. Most VIP neurons were responsive to simulated heading stimuli and were tuned such that their responses changed across a range of forward trajectories. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, we found that most VIP neurons were less sensitive to small heading changes than was the monkey, although a minority of neurons were equally sensitive. Pursuit eye movements modestly yet significantly increased both neuronal and behavioral thresholds by approximately the same amount. Our results support the view that VIP activity is involved in self-motion judgments.

scholarly journals Neural selectivity for visual motion in macaque area V3A

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nardin Nakhla ◽  
Yavar Korkian ◽  
Matthew R. Krause ◽  
Christopher C. Pack
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Optic Flow ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Motion Direction

AbstractThe processing of visual motion is carried out by dedicated pathways in the primate brain. These pathways originate with populations of direction-selective neurons in the primary visual cortex, which project to dorsal structures like the middle temporal (MT) and medial superior temporal (MST) areas. Anatomical and imaging studies have suggested that area V3A might also be specialized for motion processing, but there have been very few studies of single-neuron direction selectivity in this area. We have therefore performed electrophysiological recordings from V3A neurons in two macaque monkeys (one male and one female) and measured responses to a large battery of motion stimuli that includes translation motion, as well as more complex optic flow patterns. For comparison, we simultaneously recorded the responses of MT neurons to the same stimuli. Surprisingly, we find that overall levels of direction selectivity are similar in V3A and MT and moreover that the population of V3A neurons exhibits somewhat greater selectivity for optic flow patterns. These results suggest that V3A should be considered as part of the motion processing machinery of the visual cortex, in both human and non-human primates.Significance statementAlthough area V3A is frequently the target of anatomy and imaging studies, little is known about its functional role in processing visual stimuli. Its contribution to motion processing has been particularly unclear, with different studies yielding different conclusions. We report a detailed study of direction selectivity in V3A. Our results show that single V3A neurons are, on average, as capable of representing motion direction as are neurons in well-known structures like MT. Moreover, we identify a possible specialization for V3A neurons in representing complex optic flow, which has previously been thought to emerge in higher-order brain regions. Thus it appears that V3A is well-suited to a functional role in motion processing.

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