Multiple stages of motion processing

光流运动处理是日常生活的基础。为了向观看者获取重要的环境信息，使其能够做出适当的反应，视觉系统需要从环境中提取和区分不同模式的光流运动信号。例如，运动物体的系统变换是重建物体三维表面的最强大的来源之一。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，渡边武夫（Takeo Watanabe）博士的研究旨在从运动处理的全局框架来理解大脑中不同类型的运动信号是如何相互关联的。这项研究将使用心理物理学和功能磁共振成像技术进行，渡边博士将系统地测量不同类型运动的大脑活动，并了解它们之间的关系。该项目的更广泛影响包括教育和医疗进步，提高司机和飞行员的导航技能，以及增强人工智能/机器人技术。教育效益将包括培训研究生和本科生使用方法和技术。该研究还具有直接应用于神经外科临床研究的潜力，有助于科学知识的发展，从而改善脑部疾病或病变的诊断和治疗。该研究还可以为提高驾驶员和飞行员的导航技能提供重要的知识。最后，构建具有有效检测和利用运动信息的人工智能机器人，将有利于民用/医疗和军事领域。

Optical flow motion processing is fundamental to everyday life. In order to obtain important environmental information to the viewer that will allow her/him to react appropriately, the visual system needs to extract and differentiate different patterns of optical flow motion signals from the environment. For example, systematic transformation of moving objects is one of the most powerful sources for reconstructing the 3-dimensional surfaces of the objects. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Takeo Watanabe's research aims at understanding how different types of motion signals are related to each other in the brain from a global framework of motion processing. The research will be conducted using psychophysics and fMRI in which Dr. Watanabe will systematically measure brain activity with different types of motion and can learn how they are related to each other. Broader impacts of the project include educational and medical advances, improved navigational skills of drivers and pilots, and enhanced artificial intelligence/robotics. Educational benefits will include the training of graduate and undergraduate students in use of the methodology and technology. The research also has the potential to be directly applied to clinical research in neurosurgery by contributing to scientific knowledge leading to development of medical tools for improved diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders or lesions. The research can also provide important knowledge to enhance the navigation skills of drivers and pilots. Finally, construction of robots with the artificial intellectual power to effectively detect and utilize motion information would be of benefit to both the civilian/medical and military fields.