scholarly journals Speed discrimination during optokinetic nystagmus: Probing transsaccadic memory of visual motion

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 534-534
Author(s):  
P. MacNeilage ◽  
B. Vlaskamp
Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 823-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lothar Spillmann ◽  
Stuart Anstis ◽  
Anne Kurtenbach ◽  
Ian Howard

A random-dot field undergoing counterphase flicker paradoxically appears to move in the same direction as head and eye movements, ie opposite to the optic-flow field. The effect is robust and occurs over a wide range of flicker rates and pixel sizes. The phenomenon can be explained by reversed phi motion caused by apparent pixel movement between successive retinal images. The reversed motion provides a positive feedback control of the display, whereas under normal conditions retinal signals provide a negative feedback. This altered polarity invokes self-sustaining eye movements akin to involuntary optokinetic nystagmus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 571-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Mastropasqua ◽  
James Dowsett ◽  
Marianne Dieterich ◽  
Paul C. J. Taylor

The right frontal eye field (rFEF) is associated with visual perception and eye movements. rFEF is activated during optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), a reflex that moves the eye in response to visual motion (optokinetic stimulation, OKS). It remains unclear whether rFEF plays causal perceptual and/or oculomotor roles during OKS and OKN. To test this, participants viewed a leftward-moving visual scene of vertical bars and judged whether a flashed dot was moving. Single pulses of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were applied to rFEF on half of trials. In half of blocks, to explore oculomotor control, participants performed an OKN in response to the OKS. rFEF TMS, during OKN, made participants more accurate on trials when the dot was still, and it slowed eye movements. In separate blocks, participants fixated during OKS. This not only controlled for eye movements but also allowed the use of EEG to explore the FEF’s role in visual motion discrimination. In these blocks, by contrast, leftward dot motion discrimination was impaired, associated with a disruption of the frontal-posterior balance in alpha-band oscillations. None of these effects occurred in a control site (M1) experiment. These results demonstrate multiple related yet dissociable causal roles of the right FEF during optokinetic stimulation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study demonstrates causal roles of the right frontal eye field (FEF) in motion discrimination and eye movement control during visual scene motion: previous work had only examined other stimuli and eye movements such as saccades. Using combined transcranial magnetic stimulation and EEG and a novel optokinetic stimulation motion-discrimination task, we find evidence for multiple related yet dissociable causal roles within the FEF: perceptual processing during optokinetic stimulation, generation of the optokinetic nystagmus, and the maintenance of alpha oscillations.


2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 1625-1637 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Bensmaïa ◽  
J. H. Killebrew ◽  
J. C. Craig

Subjects were presented with pairs of tactile drifting sinusoids and made speed discrimination judgments. On some trials, a visual drifting sinusoid, which subjects were instructed to ignore, was presented simultaneously with one of the two tactile stimuli. When the visual and tactile gratings drifted in the same direction (i.e., from left to right), the visual distractors were found to increase the perceived speed of the tactile gratings. The effect of the visual distractors was proportional to their temporal frequency but not to their perceived speed. When the visual and tactile gratings drifted in opposite directions, the distracting effect of the visual distractors was either substantially reduced or, in some cases, reversed (i.e., the distractors slowed the perceived speed of the tactile gratings). This result suggests that the observed visual-tactile interaction is dependent on motion and not simply on the oscillations inherent in drifting sinusoids. Finally, we find that disrupting the temporal synchrony between the visual and tactile stimuli eliminates the distracting effect of the visual stimulus. We interpret this latter finding as evidence that the observed visual-tactile interaction operates at the sensory level and does not simply reflect a response bias.


Motor Control ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Jasmine Lalonde-Parsi ◽  
Anouk Lamontagne

Whether a reduced perception of self-motion contributes to poor walking speed adaptations in older adults is unknown. In this study, speed discrimination thresholds (perceptual task) and walking speed adaptations (walking task) were compared between young (19–27 years) and young-old individuals (63–74 years), and the relationship between the performance on the two tasks was examined. Participants were evaluated while viewing a virtual corridor in a helmet-mounted display. Speed discrimination thresholds were determined using a staircase procedure. Walking speed modulation was assessed on a self-paced treadmill while exposed to different self-motion speeds ranging from 0.25 to 2 times the participants’ comfortable speed. For each speed, participants were instructed to match the self-motion speed described by the moving corridor. On the walking task, participants displayed smaller walking speed errors at comfortable walking speeds compared with slower of faster speeds. The young-old adults presented larger speed discrimination thresholds (perceptual experiment) and larger walking speed errors (walking experiment) compared with young adults. Larger walking speed errors were associated with higher discrimination thresholds. The enhanced performance on the walking task at comfortable speed suggests that intersensory calibration processes are influenced by experience, hence optimized for frequently encountered conditions. The altered performance of the young-old adults on the perceptual and walking tasks, as well as the relationship observed between the two tasks, suggest that a poor perception of visual motion information may contribute to the poor walking speed adaptations that arise with aging.


Perception ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marc Flandrin ◽  
Marc Jeannerod

The influence of deprivation procedures on the development of motion detection mechanisms has been studied in twenty-two kittens. Superior colliculus neurons did not acquire direction selectivity and normal ocular dominance in animals reared in the dark or in stroboscopic light. Neuron immaturity persisted in spite of a five week additional recovery period in normal conditions. Exposure to unidirectional visual motion for 10 h during the fifth week of postnatal age produced an asymmetric development of the two superior colliculi. Finally, unilateral neonatal ablation of visual cortex permanently impaired development of the ipsilateral superior colliculus. In the same or in different animals, development of optokinetic nystagmus, a typical visuomotor response, was similarly influenced by the global or selective deprivation procedures. These results suggest that motion detection mechanisms (both afferent and efferent) strongly depend upon constraints imposed by the visual world during the first weeks of life.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-194
Author(s):  
Paulus S. Rommer ◽  
Roland Beisteiner ◽  
Kirsten Elwischger ◽  
Eduard Auff ◽  
Gerald Wiest

Purpose: To investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of cortical activation during the initiation of optokinetic nystagmus using magnetoencephalography. Background: Previous imaging studies of optokinetic nystagmus in humans using positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging discovered activation of a large set of cortical and subcortical structures during steady-state optokinetic stimulation, but did not provide information on the temporal dynamics of the initial response. Imaging studies have shown that cortical areas responsible for vision in occipital and temporo-occipital areas are involved, i.e. cortical areas control optokinetic stimulation in humans. Magnetoencephalography provides measures that reflect neural ensemble activity in the millisecond time scale, allowing the identification of early cortical components of visuomotor integration. Design/Methods: We studied neuromagnetic cortical responses during the initiation of optokinetic nystagmus in 6 right-handed healthy subjects. Neuromagnetic activity was recorded with a whole-head magnetoencephalograph, consisting of 143 planar gradiometers. Results: The mean (±SD) latency between stimulus onset and initiation of optokinetic nystagmus was 177.7 ± 59 ms. Initiation of optokinetic nystagmus evoked an early component in the primary visual cortex starting at 40-90 ms prior to the onset of the slow phase of nystagmus. Almost simultaneously an overlapping second component occurred bilaterally in the temporo-occipital area (visual motion areas), pronounced in the right hemisphere, starting at 10-60 ms prior to the slow-phase onset. Both components showed long-duration activity lasting for up to 100 ms after slow-phase onset. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the initiation of optokinetic nystagmus induces early cortical activation in the occipital cortex and almost simultaneously bilaterally in the temporo-occipital cortex. These cortical regions might represent essential areas for the monitoring of retinal slip.


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