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Perceiving visual expansion without optic flow

Nature volume 410, pages 816–819 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

When an observer moves forward in the environment, the image on his or her retina expands. The rate of this expansion conveys information about the observer's speed1 and the time to collision2,3,4. Psychophysical5,7 and physiological8,9 studies have provided abundant evidence that these expansionary motions are processed by specialized mechanisms in mammalian visual systems. It is commonly assumed that the rate of expansion is estimated from the divergence of the optic-flow field (the two-dimensional field of local translational velocities)10,11,12,13,14. But this rate might also be estimated from changes in the size (or scale) of image features15. To determine whether human vision uses such scale-change information, we have synthesized stochastic texture stimuli in which the scale of image elements increases gradually over time, while the optic-flow pattern is random. Here we show, using these stimuli, that observers can estimate expansion rates from scale-change information alone, and that pure scale changes can produce motion after-effects. These two findings suggest that the visual system contains mechanisms that are explicitly sensitive to changes in scale.

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Figure 1: Illustration of visual input when an observer moves forward in the environment.
Figure 2: Illustration of the three types of stimuli used in our experiments.
Figure 3: Perceptual matches of expansion rate between dot and texture stimuli.
Figure 4: Effect of adapting to stochastic expansion stimuli on the perception of an ambiguous test stimulus for five subjects.

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Acknowledgements

This work was begun when all three authors were at the University of Pennsylvania. P.S. was supported by a training grant from the NEI at the University of Pennsylvania and by a research grant from the NIH at the University of Minnesota; E.S. was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Alred P. Sloan Foundation; and D.K. was supported by a research grant from the NIH.

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Author notes

  1. Paul R. Schrater

    Present address: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 E. River Road, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455, USA

  2. David C. Knill

    Present address: Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 14627, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, 215 Stemmler Hall, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA

    Paul R. Schrater

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3815 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA

    David C. Knill

  3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Center for Neural Science and Mathematics, New York University, 4 Washington Place, Rm 809, New York, 10003, New York, USA

    Eero P. Simoncelli

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  1. Paul R. Schrater
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  3. Eero P. Simoncelli
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Correspondence to Paul R. Schrater.

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Schrater, P., Knill, D. & Simoncelli, E. Perceiving visual expansion without optic flow. Nature 410, 816–819 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35071075

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