scholarly journals Disentangling of Local and Wide-Field Motion Adaptation

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinglin Li ◽  
Miriam Niemeier ◽  
Roland Kern ◽  
Martin Egelhaaf
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Stimulus Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Motion Adaptation

Motion adaptation has been attributed in flying insects a pivotal functional role in spatial vision based on optic flow. Ongoing motion enhances in the visual pathway the representation of spatial discontinuities, which manifest themselves as velocity discontinuities in the retinal optic flow pattern during translational locomotion. There is evidence for different spatial scales of motion adaptation at the different visual processing stages. Motion adaptation is supposed to take place, on the one hand, on a retinotopic basis at the level of local motion detecting neurons and, on the other hand, at the level of wide-field neurons pooling the output of many of these local motion detectors. So far, local and wide-field adaptation could not be analyzed separately, since conventional motion stimuli jointly affect both adaptive processes. Therefore, we designed a novel stimulus paradigm based on two types of motion stimuli that had the same overall strength but differed in that one led to local motion adaptation while the other did not. We recorded intracellularly the activity of a particular wide-field motion-sensitive neuron, the horizontal system equatorial cell (HSE) in blowflies. The experimental data were interpreted based on a computational model of the visual motion pathway, which included the spatially pooling HSE-cell. By comparing the difference between the recorded and modeled HSE-cell responses induced by the two types of motion adaptation, the major characteristics of local and wide-field adaptation could be pinpointed. Wide-field adaptation could be shown to strongly depend on the activation level of the cell and, thus, on the direction of motion. In contrast, the response gain is reduced by local motion adaptation to a similar extent independent of the direction of motion. This direction-independent adaptation differs fundamentally from the well-known adaptive adjustment of response gain according to the prevailing overall stimulus level that is considered essential for an efficient signal representation by neurons with a limited operating range. Direction-independent adaptation is discussed to result from the joint activity of local motion-sensitive neurons of different preferred directions and to lead to a representation of the local motion direction that is independent of the overall direction of global motion.

scholarly journals Differential adaptation to visual motion allows robust encoding of optic flow in the dragonfly

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard J E Evans ◽  
David C O'Carroll ◽  
Joseph M Fabian ◽  
Steven D Wiederman
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Slow Motion ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Motion Adaptation ◽  
Early Visual Processing ◽  
Differential Adaptation ◽  
Analysis System ◽  
Great Complexity

An important task for any aerial creature is the ability to ascertain their own movement (ego-motion) through their environment. Neurons thought to underlie this behaviour have been well-characterised in many insect models including flies, moths and bees. However, dragonfly wide-field motion pathways remain undescribed. Some species of Dragonflies, such as Hemicordulia tau, engage in hawking behaviour, hovering in a single area for extended periods of time whilst also engaging in fast-moving patrols and highly dynamic pursuits of prey and conspecifics. These varied flight behaviours place very different constraints on establishing ego-motion from optic flow cues hinting at a sophisticated wide-field motion analysis system capable of detecting both fast and slow motion. We characterised wide-field motion sensitive neurons via intracellular recordings in Hemicordulia dragonflies finding similar properties to those found in other species. We found that the spatial and temporal tuning properties of these neurons were broadly similar but differed significantly in their adaptation to sustained motion. We categorised a total of three different subclasses, finding differences between subclasses in their motion adaptation and response to the broadband statistics of natural images. The differences found correspond well with the dynamics of the varied behavioural tasks hawking dragonflies perform. These findings may underpin the exquisite flight behaviours found in dragonflies. They also hint at the need for the great complexity seen in dragonfly early visual processing.

scholarly journals Binocular Contributions to Optic Flow Processing in the Fly Visual System

2001 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 724-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger G. Krapp ◽  
Roland Hengstenberg ◽  
Martin Egelhaaf
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Optic Lobe ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Flow Fields ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Motion Information ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Response Field

Integrating binocular motion information tunes wide-field direction-selective neurons in the fly optic lobe to respond preferentially to specific optic flow fields. This is shown by measuring the local preferred directions (LPDs) and local motion sensitivities (LMSs) at many positions within the receptive fields of three types of anatomically identifiable lobula plate tangential neurons: the three horizontal system (HS) neurons, the two centrifugal horizontal (CH) neurons, and three heterolateral connecting elements. The latter impart to two of the HS and to both CH neurons a sensitivity to motion from the contralateral visual field. Thus in two HS neurons and both CH neurons, the response field comprises part of the ipsi- and contralateral visual hemispheres. The distributions of LPDs within the binocular response fields of each neuron show marked similarities to the optic flow fields created by particular types of self-movements of the fly. Based on the characteristic distributions of local preferred directions and motion sensitivities within the response fields, the functional role of the respective neurons in the context of behaviorally relevant processing of visual wide-field motion is discussed.

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.

Linking Neuronal Direction Selectivity to Perceptual Decisions About Visual Motion

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 335-362
Author(s):  
Tatiana Pasternak ◽  
Duje Tadin
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Neuronal Response ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Motion Information ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Neurophysiological Studies ◽  
Selective Activity

Psychophysical and neurophysiological studies of responses to visual motion have converged on a consistent set of general principles that characterize visual processing of motion information. Both types of approaches have shown that the direction and speed of target motion are among the most important encoded stimulus properties, revealing many parallels between psychophysical and physiological responses to motion. Motivated by these parallels, this review focuses largely on more direct links between the key feature of the neuronal response to motion, direction selectivity, and its utilization in memory-guided perceptual decisions. These links were established during neuronal recordings in monkeys performing direction discriminations, but also by examining perceptual effects of widespread elimination of cortical direction selectivity produced by motion deprivation during development. Other approaches, such as microstimulation and lesions, have documented the importance of direction-selective activity in the areas that are active during memory-guided direction comparisons, area MT and the prefrontal cortex, revealing their likely interactions during behavioral tasks.

scholarly journals The movement of motion-defined contours can bias perceived position

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szonya Durant ◽  
Johannes M Zanker
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Motion Patterns ◽  
Object Properties ◽  
Accurate Position ◽  
Processing Steps ◽  
Over Time

Illusory position shifts induced by motion suggest that motion processing can interfere with perceived position. This may be because accurate position representation is lost during successive visual processing steps. We found that complex motion patterns, which can only be extracted at a global level by pooling and segmenting local motion signals and integrating over time, can influence perceived position. We used motion-defined Gabor patterns containing motion-defined boundaries, which themselves moved over time. This ‘motion-defined motion’ induced position biases of up to 0.5°, much larger than has been found with luminance-defined motion. The size of the shift correlated with how detectable the motion-defined motion direction was, suggesting that the amount of bias increased with the magnitude of this complex directional signal. However, positional shifts did occur even when participants were not aware of the direction of the motion-defined motion. The size of the perceptual position shift was greatly reduced when the position judgement was made relative to the location of a static luminance-defined square, but not eliminated. These results suggest that motion-induced position shifts are a result of general mechanisms matching dynamic object properties with spatial location.

Visual Motion Priors Differ for Infants and Mothers

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 2652-2668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Raudies ◽  
Rick O. Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Normal Distributions ◽  
Data Support

Visual motion direction ambiguities due to edge-aperture interaction might be resolved by speed priors, but scant empirical data support this hypothesis. We measured optic flow and gaze positions of walking mothers and the infants they carried. Empirically derived motion priors for infants are vertically elongated and shifted upward relative to mothers. Skewed normal distributions fitted to estimated retinal speeds peak at values above 20[Formula: see text]/sec.

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 Spatial specificity and inheritance of adaptation in human visual cortex

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 1211-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Larsson ◽  
Sarah J. Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Downstream Processing ◽  
Selective Adaptation ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Spatial Specificity ◽  
Fmri Adaptation ◽  
The Impact

Adaptation at early stages of sensory processing can be propagated to downstream areas. Such inherited adaptation is a potential confound for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques that use selectivity of adaptation to infer neuronal selectivity. However, the relative contributions of inherited and intrinsic adaptation at higher cortical stages, and the impact of inherited adaptation on downstream processing, remain unclear. Using fMRI, we investigated how adaptation to visual motion direction and orientation influences visually evoked responses in human V1 and extrastriate visual areas. To dissociate inherited from intrinsic adaptation, we quantified the spatial specificity of adaptation for each visual area as a measure of the receptive field sizes of the area where adaptation originated, predicting that adaptation originating in V1 should be more spatially specific than adaptation intrinsic to extrastriate visual cortex. In most extrastriate visual areas, the spatial specificity of adaptation did not differ from that in V1, suggesting that adaptation originated in V1. Only in one extrastriate area—MT—was the spatial specificity of direction-selective adaptation significantly broader than in V1, consistent with a combination of inherited V1 adaptation and intrinsic MT adaptation. Moreover, inherited adaptation effects could be both facilitatory and suppressive. These results suggest that adaptation at early visual processing stages can have widespread and profound effects on responses in extrastriate visual areas, placing important constraints on the use of fMRI adaptation techniques, while also demonstrating a general experimental strategy for systematically dissociating inherited from intrinsic adaptation by fMRI.

scholarly journals Impact of visual motion adaptation on neural responses to objects and its dependence on the temporal characteristics of optic flow

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
pp. 1825-1834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Liang ◽  
Roland Kern ◽  
Rafael Kurtz ◽  
Martin Egelhaaf
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Induced Response ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Motion Adaptation ◽  
Preferred Direction ◽  
Pure Rotation ◽  
Normal Behavior ◽  
Natural Dynamics

It is still unclear how sensory systems efficiently encode signals with statistics as experienced by animals in the real world and what role adaptation plays during normal behavior. Therefore, we studied the performance of visual motion-sensitive neurons of blowflies, the horizontal system neurons, with optic flow that was reconstructed from the head trajectories of semi-free-flying flies. To test how motion adaptation is affected by optic flow dynamics, we manipulated the seminatural optic flow by targeted modifications of the flight trajectories and assessed to what extent neuronal responses to an object located close to the flight trajectory depend on adaptation dynamics. For all types of adapting optic flow object-induced response increments were stronger in the adapted compared with the nonadapted state. Adaptation with optic flow characterized by the typical alternation between translational and rotational segments produced this effect but also adaptation with optic flow that lacked these distinguishing features and even pure rotation at a constant angular velocity. The enhancement of object-induced response increments had a direction-selective component because preferred-direction rotation and natural optic flow were more efficient adaptors than null-direction rotation. These results indicate that natural dynamics of optic flow is not a basic requirement to adapt neurons in a specific, presumably functionally beneficial way. Our findings are discussed in the light of adaptation mechanisms proposed on the basis of experiments previously done with conventional experimenter-defined stimuli.

Center-Surround Interactions in the Middle Temporal Visual Area of the Owl Monkey

2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 2658-2669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. Born
Keyword(s):  
Visual Motion ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Visual Area ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Visual Motion Processing ◽  
Owl Monkey ◽  
Motion Contrast

Microelectrode recording and 2-deoxyglucose (2dg) labeling were used to investigate center-surround interactions in the middle temporal visual area (MT) of the owl monkey. These techniques revealed columnar groups of neurons whose receptive fields had opposite types of center-surround interaction with respect to moving visual stimuli. In one type of column, neurons responded well to objects such as a single bar or spot but poorly to large textured stimuli such as random dots. This was often due to the fact that the receptive fields had antagonistic surrounds: surround motion in the same direction as that preferred by the center suppressed responses, thus rendering these neurons unresponsive to wide-field motion. In the second set of complementary, interdigitated columns, neuronal receptive fields had reinforcing surrounds and responded optimally to wide-field motion. This functional organization could not be accounted for by systematic differences in binocular disparity. Within both column types, neurons whose receptive fields exhibited center-surround interactions were found less frequently in the input layers compared with the other layers. Additional tests were done on single units to examine the nature of the center-surround interactions. The direction tuning of the surround was broader than that of the center, and the preferred direction, with respect to that of the center, tended to be either in the same or opposite direction and only rarely in orthogonal directions. Surround motion at various velocities modulated the overall responsiveness to centrally placed moving stimuli, but it did not produce shifts in the peaks of the center's tuning curves for either direction or speed. In layers 3B and 5 of the local motion processing columns, a number of neurons responded only to local motion contrast but did so over a region of the visual field that was much larger than the optimal stimulus size. The central feature of this receptive field type was the generalization of surround antagonism over retinotopic space—a property similar to other “complex” receptive fields described previously. The columnar organization of different types of center-surround interactions may reflect the initial segregation of visual motion information into wide-field and local motion contrast systems that serve complementary functions in visual motion processing. Such segregation appears to occur at later stages of the macaque motion processing stream, in the medial superior temporal area (MST), and has also been described in invertebrate visual systems where it appears to be involved in the important function of distinguishing background motion from object motion.

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