MECHANISMS OF HEADING PERCEPTION IN PRIMATE VISUAL-CORTEX

When we move forward while walking or driving, what we see appears to expand. The center or focus of this expansion tells us our direction o f self-motion, or heading, as long as our eyes are still. However, if our eyes move, as when tracking a nearby object on the ground, the ret inal image is disrupted and the focus is shifted away from the heading . Neurons in primate dorso-medial superior temporal area responded sel ectively to an expansion focus in a certain part of the visual field, and this selective region shifted during tracking eye movements in a w ay that compensated for the retinal focus shift. Therefore, these neur ons account for the effect of eye movements on what we see as we trave l forward through the world.