Brain Mechanisms Underlying Human Motion Perception

观察运动物体的能力是所有动物视觉的一个基本方面。我的长期研究目标是了解人脑如何实现对运动的感知。随着时间的推移，运动知觉也会随着成熟而发展。因此，为了理解正常的运动知觉，我研究了典型和非典型类型的视觉发育。在人类中，没有感知运动的能力的情况很少见，但某些条件会影响感知特定类型运动的能力。不同类型的儿童运动知觉的发展也不同。 根据大脑中潜在的通路或流来解释感知能力是很常见的。通常，形状和颜色知觉与腹侧流有关，运动知觉与背侧流有关。根据发育障碍患者运动知觉问题的普遍程度，一种流行的建议是，在童年时期，背侧流比腹侧流更容易受到损害。然而，视觉加工的背侧/腹侧视角过于简单化，而且最近的证据表明，腹侧流与运动知觉有关，至少在慢速度时是这样。这让人质疑背流脆弱性这个概念的用处。 在接下来的5年里，我的项目的短期目标是通过识别大脑区域来解决这一争议，这些区域涉及使用两种非侵入性技术处理不同类型和速度的运动。1)我们将使用带有严格的行为测试(心理物理学)的计算机“游戏”来测量感知不同类型运动的能力。2)同时，我们将使用功能磁共振成像(FMRI)来确定参与处理不同类型运动的大脑区域。 我们将确定不同类型的运动知觉在儿童和青春期(3至17岁)的典型成熟，重点是特定刺激参数的作用，如运动速度。为了评估运动通路的脆弱性，我们将使用心理物理学和功能磁共振成像来测量非典型发育(例如，懒眼、阅读困难、早产)导致的运动知觉变化。 我的实验室的方法是独特的，因为我们使用典型和非典型发育来理解人类运动感知的正常机制，并合成从适合儿童使用的心理物理和功能磁共振技术获得的信息。我们的工作将为挑战现有的运动感知模型提供新的知识，并有助于解决当前的一些争议。我们将开发可与其他研究人员共享的软件工具和研究范式，并为未来的研究提供标准化数据。这将对因神经障碍或脑损伤而导致视力问题的个人产生实际影响。

The ability to see objects in motion is a fundamental aspect of vision in all animals. My long-term research goal is to understand how the perception of motion is achieved by the human brain. Motion perception develops over time with maturation. Thus, to understand normal motion perception, I study typical and atypical types of visual development. In humans, it is rare to have no ability to perceive motion, but certain conditions affect the ability to perceive specific types of motion. The development of motion perception in children also differs for each of the different types. It is common to interpret perceptual abilities in terms of the underlying pathways or streams in the brain. Typically, form and colour perception are linked to the ventral stream and motion perception to the dorsal stream. A popular suggestion, based on the prevalence of problems with motion perception in people with developmental disorders, is that the dorsal stream is more vulnerable to damage during childhood than the ventral stream. However, the dorsal/ventral view of visual processing is too simplistic, and more recent evidence implicates the ventral stream in motion perception, at least for slow speeds. This brings into question the usefulness of the notion of dorsal stream vulnerability. In the next 5 years, the short-term goal of my program is to address this controversy by identifying the brain regions involved in processing different types and speeds of motion using two non-invasive techniques. 1) We will use computer "games", with rigorous behavioural testing (psychophysics), to measure the ability to perceive different types of motion. 2) At the same time, we will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to confirm the brain regions involved in processing different types of motion. We will determine the typical maturation of different types of motion perception during childhood and adolescence (age 3 to 17 years), with a focus on the role of specific stimulus parameters such as the speed of the motion. To assess the vulnerability of the motion pathways, we will use psychophysics and fMRI to measure changes in motion perception caused by atypical development (e.g., lazy eye, dyslexia, prematurity). The approach of my lab is unique in that we use both typical and atypical development to understand normal mechanisms of human motion perception, and we synthesize information obtained from psychophysical and fMRI techniques adapted for use with children. Our work will provide new knowledge to challenge existing models of motion perception and help resolve some current controversies. We will develop software tools and research paradigms that can be shared with other researchers, and we will provide normative data for future studies. There will be practical implications for individuals with visual problems caused by neural disorders or brain injury.