Directional anisotropies reveal a functional segregation of visual motion processing for perception and action

Churchland, A. K., Gardner, J. L., Chou, I. H., Priebe, N. J., Lisberger, S. G. (March 2003) Directional anisotropies reveal a functional segregation of visual motion processing for perception and action. Neuron, 37 (6). pp. 1001-1011. ISSN 08966273 (ISSN)

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12670428
DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(03)00145-4

Abstract

Humans exhibit an anisotropy in direction perception: discrimination is superior when motion is around horizontal or vertical rather than diagonal axes. In contrast to the consistent directional anisotropy in perception, we found only small idiosyncratic anisotropies in smooth pursuit eye movements, a motor action requiring accurate discrimination of visual motion direction. Both pursuit and perceptual direction discrimination rely on signals from the middle temporal visual area (MT), yet analysis of multiple measures of MT neuronal responses in the macaque failed to provide evidence of a directional anisotropy. We conclude that MT represents different motion directions uniformly, and subsequent processing creates a directional anisotropy in pathways unique to perception. Our data support the hypothesis that, at least for visual motion, perception and action are guided by inputs from separate sensory streams. The directional anisotropy of perception appears to originate after the two streams have segregated and downstream from area MT.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: accuracy anisotropy article body movement brain region controlled study eye tracking female human human experiment Macaca male motion motor activity movement perception nerve cell priority journal signal transduction vision Animals Discrimination (Psychology) Eye Movements Humans Neurons Temporal Lobe Visual Perception
Subjects: organism description > animal behavior
organism description > animal behavior > vision
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Churchland lab
Depositing User: CSHL Librarian
Date: March 2003
Date Deposited: 20 Mar 2012 15:16
Last Modified: 03 Dec 2014 14:59
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25458

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