Porterfield and Wells on the Motions of Our Eyes

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p2887 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J Wade
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Binocular Vision ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Crystalline Lens ◽  
Visual Direction ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Visual Distance ◽  
Visual Interaction ◽  
Alternative Means

William Porterfield (ca 1696 – 1771) and William Charles Wells (1757 – 1817) conducted experimental investigations on eye movements related to accommodation, binocular vision, and vertigo. Porterfield gave a correct interpretation of Scheiner's experiment and invented an optometer to measure the near and far points of distinct vision. He also demonstrated the involvement of the crystalline lens in accommodation by examining vision in an aphakic person. Wells devised an alternative means of measuring the limits of vision and noted his own deterioration of sight with age; he studied the effects of belladonna on pupil size and accommodation. Their analyses of binocular visual direction contrasted Porterfield's view that perceived location was innately determined with Wells's argument that visual direction was innate whereas visual distance was learned. Both Porterfield and Wells investigated the involvement of eye movements in binocular vision and in postrotary visual motion. Porterfield maintained that the eyes did not move following body rotation, whereas Wells, using an afterimage as stabilised retinal image, described the characteristics of postrotary nystagmus and their dependence on head orientation. Despite the neglect of Wells's work, he should be considered as laying the foundations for the study of vestibular – visual interaction, even though the function of the vestibular system was not known at that time.

On the Late Invention of the Stereoscope

Perception ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 785-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J Wade
Keyword(s):  
Binocular Vision ◽  
Space Perception ◽  
The Body ◽  
Visual Direction ◽  
The Third ◽  
Visual Distance ◽  
Third Dimension ◽  
Late Invention ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Binocular Depth

It was not until 1838, when Wheatstone published his account of the stereoscope, that stereoscopic depth perception entered into the body of binocular phenomena. It is argued that the stereoscope was not invented earlier because the phenomenon of stereopsis based on disparity had not been adequately described. This was the case despite the fact that there had been earlier descriptions of tasks that could be performed better with two eyes than with one; the perceptual deficits attendant upon the loss of one eye had been remarked upon; analyses of the projections to each eye were commonplace, and binocular disparities were accurately illustrated; moreover, binocular microscopes and telescopes had been made over a century earlier. Theories of binocular vision were generally confined to accounting for singleness of vision with two eyes, and the concepts employed to account for this were visible direction, corresponding retinal points, and union in the brain. The application of these concepts inhibited any consideration of disparities, other than for yielding diplopia. When perception of the third dimension was addressed by Berkeley at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was in the context of monocular vision and binocular convergence. Thereafter visual direction became the province for binocular vision and it was analysed in terms of geometrical optics, whereas visual distance was examined in the context of learned associations between vision and touch. This artificial division was challenged initially with respect to visual direction and later with respect to stereopsis. An additional factor delaying the invention of the stereoscope was that experiments on binocular vision generally involved abnormal convergence on extended objects. Wheatstone's accidental observation of stereopsis was under artificial conditions in which disparity alone defined the binocular depth perceived. Once invented the stereoscope was enthusiastically embraced by students of vision. It is suggested that the ease with which retinal disparity could be manipulated in stereopairs has led to an exaggeration of its importance in space perception.

Role of the Vermal Cerebellum in Visually Guided Eye Movements and Visual Motion Perception

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Thier ◽  
Akshay Markanday
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Cerebellar Nuclei ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Past Performance ◽  
Visual Motion Perception ◽  
Oculomotor Vermis ◽  
Retinal Information

The cerebellar cortex is a crystal-like structure consisting of an almost endless repetition of a canonical microcircuit that applies the same computational principle to different inputs. The output of this transformation is broadcasted to extracerebellar structures by way of the deep cerebellar nuclei. Visually guided eye movements are accommodated by different parts of the cerebellum. This review primarily discusses the role of the oculomotor part of the vermal cerebellum [the oculomotor vermis (OMV)] in the control of visually guided saccades and smooth-pursuit eye movements. Both types of eye movements require the mapping of retinal information onto motor vectors, a transformation that is optimized by the OMV, considering information on past performance. Unlike the role of the OMV in the guidance of eye movements, the contribution of the adjoining vermal cortex to visual motion perception is nonmotor and involves a cerebellar influence on information processing in the cerebral cortex.

scholarly journals The Direction of Walking—but Not Throwing or Kicking—Is Adapted by Optic Flow

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 1006-1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Bruggeman ◽  
William H. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Optic Flow ◽  
Perception And Action ◽  
Functional Mapping ◽  
Visual Direction ◽  
Head Orientation ◽  
Functional Level ◽  
Coordinate Frames ◽  
Negative Aftereffect

Optic flow is known to adapt the direction of walking, but the locus of adaptation remains unknown. The effect could be due to realignment of anatomical eye, head, trunk, and leg coordinate frames or to recalibration of a functional mapping from the visual direction of the target to the direction of locomotion. We tested whether adaptation of walking to a target, with optic flow displaced by 10°, transfers to facing, throwing, and kicking a ball to the target. A negative aftereffect for initial walking direction failed to transfer to head orientation or throwing or kicking direction. Thus, participants effectively threw or kicked the ball to the target, and then walked in another direction to retrieve it. These findings are consistent with recalibration of a task-specific visuo-locomotor mapping, revealing a functional level of organization in perception and action.

scholarly journals Spatial and Temporal Integration of Visual Motion Signals for Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements in Monkeys

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 2013-2025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie C. Osborne ◽  
Stephen G. Lisberger
Keyword(s):  
Random Walk ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Target Motion ◽  
Linear Filter ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Spatial Averaging ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements

To probe how the brain integrates visual motion signals to guide behavior, we analyzed the smooth pursuit eye movements evoked by target motion with a stochastic component. When each dot of a texture executed an independent random walk such that speed or direction varied across the spatial extent of the target, pursuit variance increased as a function of the variance of visual pattern motion. Noise in either target direction or speed increased the variance of both eye speed and direction, implying a common neural noise source for estimating target speed and direction. Spatial averaging was inefficient for targets with >20 dots. Together these data suggest that pursuit performance is limited by the properties of spatial averaging across a noisy population of sensory neurons rather than across the physical stimulus. When targets executed a spatially uniform random walk in time around a central direction of motion, an optimized linear filter that describes the transformation of target motion into eye motion accounted for ∼50% of the variance in pursuit. Filters had widths of ∼25 ms, much longer than the impulse response of the eye, and filter shape depended on both the range and correlation time of motion signals, suggesting that filters were products of sensory processing. By quantifying the effects of different levels of stimulus noise on pursuit, we have provided rigorous constraints for understanding sensory population decoding. We have shown how temporal and spatial integration of sensory signals converts noisy population responses into precise motor responses.

Distributed spatial coding in the superior colliculus: A review

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. McIlwain
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Direction ◽  
Saccade Amplitude ◽  
Spatial Coding ◽  
Distributed Coding

AbstractThis paper reviews evidence that the superior colliculus (SC) of the midbrain represents visual direction and certain aspects of saccadic eye movements in the distribution of activity across a population of cells. Accurate and precise eye movements appear to be mediated, in part at least, by cells of the SC that have large sensory receptive fields and/or discharge in association with a range of saccades. This implies that visual points or saccade targets are represented by patches rather than points of activity in the SC. Perturbation of the pattern of collicular discharge by focal inactivation modifies saccade amplitude and direction in a way consistent with distributed coding. Several models have been advanced to explain how such a code might be implemented in the colliculus. Evidence related to these hypotheses is examined and continuing uncertainties are identified.

Pursuit and optokinetic deficits following chemical lesions of cortical areas MT and MST

1988 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 940-965 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Dursteler ◽  
R. H. Wurtz
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Ibotenic Acid ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Temporal Area ◽  
Target Speed ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Medial Superior Temporal ◽  
Visual Motion Processing

1. Previous experiments have shown that punctate chemical lesions within the middle temporal area (MT) of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) produce deficits in the initiation and maintenance of pursuit eye movements (10, 34). The present experiments were designed to test the effect of such chemical lesions in an area within the STS to which MT projects, the medial superior temporal area (MST). 2. We injected ibotenic acid into localized regions of MST, and we observed two deficits in pursuit eye movements, a retinotopic deficit and a directional deficit. 3. The retinotopic deficit in pursuit initiation was characterized by the monkey's inability to match eye speed to target speed or to adjust the amplitude of the saccade made to acquire the target to compensate for target motion. This deficit was related to the initiation of pursuit to targets moving in any direction in the visual field contralateral to the side of the brain with the lesion. This deficit was similar to the deficit we found following damage to extrafoveal MT except that the affected area of the visual field frequently extended throughout the entire contralateral visual field tested. 4. The directional deficit in pursuit maintenance was characterized by a failure to match eye speed to target speed once the fovea had been brought near the moving target. This deficit occurred only when the target was moving toward the side of the lesion, regardless of whether the target began to move in the ipsilateral or contralateral visual field. There was no deficit in the amplitude of saccades made to acquire the target, or in the amplitude of the catch-up saccades made to compensate for the slowed pursuit. The directional deficit is similar to the one we described previously following chemical lesions of the foveal representation in the STS. 5. Retinotopic deficits resulted from any of our injections in MST. Directional deficits resulted from lesions limited to subregions within MST, particularly lesions that invaded the floor of the STS and the posterior bank of the STS just lateral to MT. Extensive damage to the densely myelinated area of the anterior bank or to the posterior parietal area on the dorsal lip of the anterior bank produced minimal directional deficits. 6. We conclude that damage to visual motion processing in MST underlies the retinotopic pursuit deficit just as it does in MT. MST appears to be a sequential step in visual motion processing that occurs before all of the visual motion information is transmitted to the brainstem areas related to pursuit.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Recasting the Smooth Pursuit Eye Movement System

2004 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 591-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Krauzlis
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
High Acuity ◽  
Voluntary Eye Movements ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Brain

Primates use a combination of smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements to stabilize the retinal image of selected objects within the high-acuity region near the fovea. Pursuit has traditionally been viewed as a relatively automatic behavior, driven by visual motion signals and mediated by pathways that connect visual areas in the cerebral cortex to motor regions in the cerebellum. However, recent findings indicate that this view needs to be reconsidered. Rather than being controlled primarily by areas in extrastriate cortex specialized for processing visual motion, pursuit involves an extended network of cortical areas, and, of these, the pursuit-related region in the frontal eye fields appears to exert the most direct influence. The traditional pathways through the cerebellum are important, but there are also newly identified routes involving structures previously associated with the control of saccades, including the basal ganglia, the superior colliculus, and nuclei in the brain stem reticular formation. These recent findings suggest that the pursuit system has a functional architecture very similar to that of the saccadic system. This viewpoint provides a new perspective on the processing steps that occur as descending control signals interact with circuits in the brain stem and cerebellum responsible for gating and executing voluntary eye movements. Although the traditional view describes pursuit and saccades as two distinct neural systems, it may be more accurate to consider the two movements as different outcomes from a shared cascade of sensory–motor functions.

MST Neuronal Responses to Heading Direction During Pursuit Eye Movements

1999 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 596-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
William K. Page ◽  
Charles J. Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Neuronal Population ◽  
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Temporal Area ◽  
Pursuit Eye Movements ◽  
Heading Direction ◽  
Monkey Visual Cortex

MST neuronal responses to heading direction during pursuit eye movements. As you move through the environment, you see a radial pattern of visual motion with a focus of expansion (FOE) that indicates your heading direction. When self-movement is combined with smooth pursuit eye movements, the turning of the eye distorts the retinal image of the FOE but somehow you still can perceive heading. We studied neurons in the medial superior temporal area (MST) of monkey visual cortex, recording responses to FOE stimuli presented during fixation and smooth pursuit eye movements. Almost all neurons showed significant changes in their FOE selective responses during pursuit eye movements. However, the vector average of all the neuronal responses indicated the direction of the FOE during both fixation and pursuit. Furthermore, the amplitude of the net vector increased with increasing FOE eccentricity. We conclude that neuronal population encoding in MST might contribute to pursuit-tolerant heading perception.

scholarly journals Fooling the Eyes: The Influence of a Sound-Induced Visual Motion Illusion on Eye Movements

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. e62131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Fracasso ◽  
Stefano Targher ◽  
Massimiliano Zampini ◽  
David Melcher
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Motion

scholarly journals Humans adapt their anticipatory eye movements to the volatility of visual motion properties

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e1007438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Pasturel ◽  
Anna Montagnini ◽  
Laurent Udo Perrinet
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Anticipatory Eye Movements
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