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，但很少关注大脑感觉功能的遗传学。识别影响特定低水平感知功能的多态性可能会揭示基本认知过程的过程。我建议发展一系列的心理物理学范式的运动知觉的调查，显示显着的变化，个体和遗传性的迹象。这个阵列以后可能会被用来调查运动知觉个体间差异的遗传基础。将测试四种受个体差异影响的范式：（i）模糊运动的首选方向，（ii）检测运动方向的能力，（iii）速度辨别，以及（iv）组成格子的感知。在第一步中，建议的范例将进行心理测试，以可靠地产生个体差异，并优化大样本的心理物理测试。最后，一组同胞对将使用这些范例进行测试，以建立遗传力，并确定候选人的运动机制进行遗传分析。

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.