scholarly journals Receptive fields for smooth pursuit eye movements and motion perception

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (24) ◽  
pp. 2729-2739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Debono ◽  
Alexander C. Schütz ◽  
Miriam Spering ◽  
Karl R. Gegenfurtner
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements

Discharge patterns of neurons in the pretectal nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) in the behaving primate

1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Mustari ◽  
A. F. Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Optic Tract ◽  
Large Field ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Stimulus Velocity ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pretectal Nucleus

1. To determine the possible role of the primate pretectal nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) in the generation of optokinetic and smooth-pursuit eye movements, we recorded the activity of 155 single units in four behaving rhesus macaques. The monkeys were trained to fixate a stationary target spot during visual testing and to track a small moving spot in a variety of visual environments. 2. The majority (82%) of NOT neurons responded only to visual stimuli. Most units responded vigorously for large-field (70 x 50 degrees) moving visual stimuli and responded less, if at all, during smooth-pursuit eye movements in the dark; many of these units had large receptive fields (greater than 10 x 10 degrees) that included the fovea. The remaining visual units responded more vigorously during smooth-pursuit eye movements in the dark than during movement of large-field visual stimuli; all but one had small receptive fields (less than 10 x 10 degrees) that included the fovea. For all visual units that responded during smooth pursuit, extinction of the small moving target so briefly that pursuit continued caused the firing rates to drop to resting levels, confirming that the discharge was due to visual stimulation of receptive fields with foveal and perifoveal movement sensitivity and not to smooth-pursuit eye movements per se. 3. Eighteen percent of all NOT units ceased their tonic discharge in association with all saccades including the quick phases accompanying optokinetic or vestibular nystagmus. The pause in firing began after saccade onset, was unrelated to saccade duration, and occurred even in complete darkness. 4. Most (90%) of the visual NOT units were direction selective. They exhibited an increase in firing above resting during horizontal (ipsilateral) background movement and/or during smooth pursuit of a moving spot and a decrease in firing during contralateral movement. 5. The firing rates of NOT units were highly dependent on stimulus velocity. All had velocity thresholds of less than 1 degree/s and exhibited a monotonic increase in firing rate with visual stimulus velocity over part (n = 90%) or all (n = 10%) of the tested range (i.e., 1–200 degrees/s). Most NOT units exhibited velocity tuning with an average preferred velocity of 64 degrees/s.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Localization and motion perception during smooth pursuit eye movements

2005 ◽  
Vol 171 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan L. Souman ◽  
Ignace Th.C. Hooge ◽  
Alexander H. Wertheim
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements

Contrast and Assimilation in Motion Perception and Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 1355-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Spering ◽  
Karl R. Gegenfurtner
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
Velocity Estimation ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Perceived Velocity

The analysis of visual motion serves many different functions ranging from object motion perception to the control of self-motion. The perception of visual motion and the oculomotor tracking of a moving object are known to be closely related and are assumed to be controlled by shared brain areas. We compared perceived velocity and the velocity of smooth pursuit eye movements in human observers in a paradigm that required the segmentation of target object motion from context motion. In each trial, a pursuit target and a visual context were independently perturbed simultaneously to briefly increase or decrease in speed. Observers had to accurately track the target and estimate target speed during the perturbation interval. Here we show that the same motion signals are processed in fundamentally different ways for perception and steady-state smooth pursuit eye movements. For the computation of perceived velocity, motion of the context was subtracted from target motion (motion contrast), whereas pursuit velocity was determined by the motion average (motion assimilation). We conclude that the human motion system uses these computations to optimally accomplish different functions: image segmentation for object motion perception and velocity estimation for the control of smooth pursuit eye movements.

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