Visual motion and the human brain: what has neuroimaging told us?

Recently, neuroimaging techniques have been applied to the study of human m otion perception, complementing established techniques such as psychophysic s, neurophysiology and neuropsychology. Because vision, particularly motion perception, has been studied relatively extensively, it provides an intere sting case study to examine the contributions and limitations of neuroimagi ng to cognitive neuroscience. We suggest that in the domain of motion perce ption neuroimaging has: (1) revealed an extensive network of motion areas t hroughout the human brain, in addition to the well-studied motion complex ( MT+); (2) verified and extended findings from other techniques; (3) suggest ed extensive top-down influences on motion perception; and (4) allowed expe rimenters to examine the neural correlates of awareness. We discuss these c ontributions, along with limitations and future directions for the neuroima ging of motion. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.