Visual Ecology of Motion

该项目旨在从生态学的角度看待视觉运动，这是视觉系统最重要的能力之一。而不是专注于视觉输入，即视网膜上亮度的时空变化，我建议更早地开始，即在引起视网膜运动模式的生态来源。自身的运动和他人的运动是视网膜运动的两个主要发生器。过去的研究表明，计算要求和感知机制之间存在根本差异，这表明它们是在不同的皮层通路中进行的。然而，令人惊讶的是，包含两种类型的运动的生态相关情况，如当一个人在其他人中行走时，从未被彻底调查过。计算方面的考虑表明，一方面，这两种类型的运动会给对方带来问题，因为它们违反了各自的计算前提。另一方面，由于两者都由不同的感知机制支持，因此系统之间可能存在协同作用和串扰。该项目将通过心理物理实验和计算建模的结合来研究这些协同作用和冲突。它将使用几种不同的范例，这些范例将共同提供所涉机制的全貌。研究结果将有助于更好地理解视觉运动分析的途径，首次描述在人口密集的环境中自我运动控制的感知机制，并澄清视觉运动分析的概念

The project aims at an ecological perspective on visual motion, one of the most important capacities of the visual system. Rather than focussing on the visual input, i.e. the spatio-temporal variations of luminance on the retina, I propose to start earlier, namely at the ecological sources that give rise to retinal motion patterns. The motion of oneself and the motion of others are the two main generators of retinal motion. Past research has shown fundamental differences between tlieir computational requirements and perceptual mechanisms, suggesting that they are performed in different cortical pathways. Surprisingly, however, ecologically relevant situations containing both types of motion, as when one walks amongst others, have never been thoroughly investigated. Computational considerations suggest, on the one hand, that the two types of motion will inflict problems onto each other since they violate respective computational prerequisites. On the other hand, since both are supported by distinct perceptual mechanisms there may be synergies and cross talk between the systems. The project will investigate these synergies and conflicts with a combination of psychophysical experiments and computational modelling. It will use several different paradigms that together shall give a full picture of the mechanisms involved. The results will provide a better understanding of the pathways of visual motion analysis, a first description of perceptual mechanisms for self-motion control in a populated environment, and a conceptual clarification of visual motion analysis