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Pattern-motion responses in human visual cortex

Nature Neuroscience volume 5, pages 72–75 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Physiological models of visual motion processing posit that 'pattern-motion cells' represent the direction of moving objects independent of their particular spatial pattern. We performed fMRI experiments to identify neuronal activity in the human brain selective for pattern motion. A protocol using adaptation to moving 'plaid' stimuli allowed us to separate pattern-motion responses from other types of motion-related activity within the same brain structures, and revealed strong pattern-motion selectivity in human visual area MT+. Reducing the perceptual coherence of the plaids yielded a corresponding decrease in pattern-motion responsivity, providing evidence that percepts of coherent motion are closely linked to the activity of pattern-motion cells in human MT+.

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Figure 1: Stimuli and protocol for coherent-plaid adaptation experiment.
Figure 2: Pattern-motion adaptation in human visual cortex.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. Newsome for helpful comments. The research was supported by an NEI grant (RO1-EY12741) and a grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (RG0070/1999-B).

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  1. Alexander C. Huk

    Present address: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Box 357290, Health Sciences Bldg, Room G-424, Seattle, Washington, 98195-7290, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305-2130, California, USA

    Alexander C. Huk & David J. Heeger

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Correspondence to Alexander C. Huk.

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Huk, A., Heeger, D. Pattern-motion responses in human visual cortex. Nat Neurosci 5, 72–75 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn774

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