Limits and Localisation of Speed Perception: an investigation of the processing of object speed by the human visual system.

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The ability of an organism to estimate the speed of moving objects in the surrounding environment provides an important means by which it can obtain information about the nature of the outside world. The analysis of speed is important because it provides the basis for enabling organisms to track, catch or even avoid moving objects around it, tasks which make the perception of speed vital to an organism's maintained survival. This research aims to improve our basic understanding about how the human brain and visual system accomplish something as fundamental as the analysis of the speed. It has only been relatively recently that a picture has started to emerge as to exactly how, and in which parts of the brain, the speed of moving objects is analysed. Yet despite growing insight there remain many gaps in our knowledge. Two fundamental questions that have been largely unexplored are: 1) How are different kinds of motion cue used in the perception of speed? Movement of objects in the outside world can be signalled by changes in many different kinds of motion cues, such as changes in colour, texture and light or luminance levels, to name but a few. We wish to examine how motion that is defined by various kinds of information is handled by the visual system and to what extent these cues are combined in the overall analysis of stimulus speed. In behavioural experiments we will measure the ability of human subjects to detect differences in speed between pairs of moving stimuli. In particular, we will examine how these speed judgements can be affected when the stimuli are defined by differing motion cues and how judgements can be affected by the presence of additional moving stimuli which may be of a similar or dissimilar nature to those stimuli being directly compared. How performance is affected under these conditions will allow us to gauge to what extent various stimulus attributes are used by the visual system in the analysis of stimulus speed. 2) Where in the human brain does the analysis of speed take place? Recent experiments on monkeys have identified areas of their brains that contain neurons which are sensitive to the speed of moving objects. By comparison, relatively little is known about whether equivalent regions of the human brain perform a similar role in the analysis of stimulus speed. We want to identify which regions of the human brain are important in the analysis of object speed. To address this second question, similar behavioural experiments will be used in conjunction with a technique known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). This technique allows us, without harming human subjects, to momentarily disrupt the operation of small regions of the brain with magnetic fields. Basically, if certain areas are crucial for the analysis of stimulus speed, then we would expect that disruption to those areas would lead to major reductions in performance when subjects are asked to make judgements about the speed of visually presented stimuli. By stimulating different areas of the human brain we can assess their relative contributions to the perception of stimulus speed. The combination of behavioural measures of visual performance with TMS will enable firm conclusions to be drawn about the organisation, timing and location of the neural processes that underpin the perception of speed in the normal human visual system.