MOTION ANISOTROPIES AND HEADING DETECTION

Citation
M. Lappe et Jp. Rauschecker, MOTION ANISOTROPIES AND HEADING DETECTION, Biological cybernetics, 72(3), 1995, pp. 261-277
Citations number
58
Categorie Soggetti
Computer Science Cybernetics","Biology Miscellaneous
Journal title
ISSN journal
03401200
Volume
72
Issue
3
Year of publication
1995
Pages
261 - 277
Database
ISI
SICI code
0340-1200(1995)72:3<261:MAAHD>2.0.ZU;2-I
Abstract
In motion-processing areas of the visual cortex in cats and monkeys, a n anisotropic distribution of direction selectivities displays a prefe rence for movements away from the fovea. This 'centrifugal bias' has b een hypothetically linked to the processing of optic flow fields gener ated during forward locomotion. In this paper, we show that flow field s induced on the retina in many natural situations of locomotion of hi gher mammals are indeed qualitatively centrifugal in structure, even w hen biologically plausible eye movements to stabilize gaze on environm ental targets are performed. We propose a network model of heading det ection that carries an anisotropy similar to the one found in cat and monkey. In simulations, this model reproduces a number of psychophysic al results of human heading detection. It suggests that a recently rep orted human disability to correctly identify the direction of heading from optic flow when a certain type of eye movement is simulated might be linked to the noncentrifugal structure of the resulting retinal fl ow field and to the neurophysiological anisotropies.