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Visual processing

How to know where to go

Nature volume 392, pages 231–232 (1998)Cite this article

When you move through a landscape containing objects at various distances, the images on your retinas move as you turn and change as you progress. Such image motions (‘optic flow’) are the inevitable consequence of locomotion, and they occur in any creature or robot with eyes. Wylie and colleagues have studied the processing of optic flow in the pigeon brain1,2 and, on page 278 of this issue1, they describe in detail one component of that process.

On the one hand, movement of the retinal image interferes with vision — by producing motion blur, by displacing interesting objects from the area of best vision, or by seeming to tilt things that are upright. Most animals with good vision try to minimize these disturbances, at least temporarily, with gaze-stabilizing eye and head movements while they move around. On the other hand, however, optic flow can be a rich source of information. Humans and animals exploit it to sense their own motion or to segment the visual scene into objects on the basis of motion parallax. We also use optic flow to estimate our distance from obstacles or targets, and to control other movements during locomotion.

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Figure 1: Analysis of optic flow in the pigeon brain, as studied by Wylie et al.1.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Biologische Kybernetik, Spemannstrasse 38, D-72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Roland Hengstenberg

  2. Institute for Advanced Study, Wallotstrasse 19, D-14193, Berlin, Germany

    Roland Hengstenberg

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  1. Roland Hengstenberg
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Hengstenberg, R. How to know where to go. Nature 392, 231–232 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/32539

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