Heritability in human motion perception - providing psychophysical methods for genetic analysis

虽然最近有人试图了解认知功能的遗传学，如智力、记忆和个性，但很少有人关注感觉脑功能的遗传学。识别影响特定低水平知觉功能的多态可能有助于揭示基础认知过程的过程。我建议开发一系列心理物理范式来研究运动知觉，这些范式显示出个体之间的显着差异和遗传性的迹象。这个阵列稍后可能被用来研究运动知觉个体间差异的遗传基础。将测试四种个体差异较大的范式：(I)模糊运动的首选方向，(Ii)识别运动方向的能力，(Iii)速度辨别，和(Iv)对合成格子的感知。在第一步中，将对所建议的范例进行心理物理测试，以可靠地产生个体差异，并针对大样本心理物理测试进行优化。最后，将使用这些范例对一组兄弟姐妹进行测试，以确定遗传性，并确定用于遗传分析的候选运动机制。

While there have been recent attempts to understand the genetics of cognitive functions, such as intelligence, memory and personality, little attention has been paid to the genetics of sensory brain functions. Identifying the polymorphisms affecting specific low-level perceptual functions may shed light on the processes underlying fundamental cognitive processes. I propose to develop an array of psychophysical paradigms for the investigation of motion perception which show significant variation among individuals and indications of heritability. This array may later be used to investigate the genetic basis of interindividual differences in the perception of motion. Four paradigms which are subject to substantial individual variation will be tested: (i) the preferred direction of ambiguous motion, (ii) the ability to detect motion direction, (iii) velocity discrimination, and (iv) perception of composed plaids. In a first step, the suggested paradigms will be psychophysically tested for reliable production of individual variation and optimised for large sample psychophysical testing. Finally, a panel of sibling pairs will be tested using these paradigms to establish heritability, and to identify candidate motion mechanisms for genetic analysis.