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Motion detection is the ability of the visual system to detect motion in the visual field. Motion detection in its simplest form takes place in the retina, but more complex processes related to movement perception are thought to involve the extrastriate cortex.
Background motion profoundly impacts visual perception. Here, the authors show that an inhibitory brainstem pathway, recruited by global background motion, suppresses superior colliculus activity and visual perception mediated by this structure.
How do animals use sensory streams to guide behavior? Here the authors show that larval zebrafish process motion and luminance via three feature-specific parallel visual pathways, which are combined to flexibly control sensorimotor decision-making.
Direction selectivity is a core computation shared across visual circuits, but its underlying mechanisms remain incomplete. Here, the author uses biologically inspired machine learning to reveal multiple new motifs that robustly compute motion direction.
People typically perceive the motion and depth of objects correctly even during walking or running, when visual inputs change markedly. The authors show that this accurate perception is achieved by inferring the observer’s viewing geometry from optic flow.
Ocular following and perceptual speeds show dissociation confirmed by distinctive feature sensitivity and the selective impairment of perceptual speed by short presentation times without the timing effect on oculomotor behavior. Shared direction signals in delayed timing suggest both systems are modulated via feedback control.
Neurons in the mouse postrhinal cortex receive visual inputs from the superior colliculus and respond to visual motion independently of the primary visual cortex.
Single-unit recording in primate cortical area MT shows surprising sensitivity to depth defined by dynamical perspective cues. Depth might then be computed through recurrent circuits involving signals downstream of MT.
In both fruitflies and vertebrates, signals from photoreceptor cells are immediately split into two opposing channels in the downstream neurons. This might facilitate the computation of visual motion. See Letterp.300
