scholarly journals Perception of biological motion by jumping spiders

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. e3001172
Author(s):  
Massimo De Agrò ◽  
Daniela C. Rößler ◽  
Kris Kim ◽  
Paul S. Shamble
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
The Body ◽  
Jumping Spiders ◽  
Biological Motion Perception ◽  
History Of ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion ◽  
Point Light Display

The body of most creatures is composed of interconnected joints. During motion, the spatial location of these joints changes, but they must maintain their distances to one another, effectively moving semirigidly. This pattern, termed “biological motion” in the literature, can be used as a visual cue, enabling many animals (including humans) to distinguish animate from inanimate objects. Crucially, even artificially created scrambled stimuli, with no recognizable structure but that maintains semirigid movement patterns, are perceived as animated. However, to date, biological motion perception has only been reported in vertebrates. Due to their highly developed visual system and complex visual behaviors, we investigated the capability of jumping spiders to discriminate biological from nonbiological motion using point-light display stimuli. These kinds of stimuli maintain motion information while being devoid of structure. By constraining spiders on a spherical treadmill, we simultaneously presented 2 point-light displays with specific dynamic traits and registered their preference by observing which pattern they turned toward. Spiders clearly demonstrated the ability to discriminate between biological motion and random stimuli, but curiously turned preferentially toward the latter. However, they showed no preference between biological and scrambled displays, results that match responses produced by vertebrates. Crucially, spiders turned toward the stimuli when these were only visible by the lateral eyes, evidence that this task may be eye specific. This represents the first demonstration of biological motion recognition in an invertebrate, posing crucial questions about the evolutionary history of this ability and complex visual processing in nonvertebrate systems.

scholarly journals Perception of biological motion in point-light displays by jumping spiders

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo De Agrò ◽  
Daniela C. Rößler ◽  
Kris Kim ◽  
Paul S. Shamble
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Jumping Spiders ◽  
Visual Behaviors ◽  
History Of ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion ◽  
Point Light Display ◽  
Dynamic Traits

AbstractOver the last 50 years, point-light displays have been successfully used to explore how animals respond to dynamic visual stimuli—specifically, differentiation of the biological from the non-biological. These stimuli are designed to preserve movement patterns while minimizing static detail, with single dots representing each of the main joints of a moving animal. Imposed by their internal skeleton, vertebrate movements follow a specific semi-rigid dynamic pattern, termed “biological-motion”, which can be used to distinguish animate from inanimate objects. Although biological motion detection has not been studied in invertebrates, rigid exoskeletons force many species to also follow semi-rigid movement principles. Due to their highly developed visual system and complex visual behaviors, we investigated the capability of jumping spiders to discriminate biological from non-biological motion using point-light display stimuli. By constraining spiders so that they could rotate but not move directionally, we simultaneously presented two point-light display stimuli with specific dynamic traits and registered their preference by observing which pattern they turned towards. Jumping spiders clearly demonstrated the ability to discriminate between stimuli. However, spiders showed no preference when both stimuli presented patterns with semi-rigid movements, results that are directly comparable to responses in vertebrate systems. This represents the first demonstration of biological motion recognition in an invertebrate, posing crucial questions about the evolutionary history of this ability and complex visual processing in non-vertebrate systems.

Dichotomy in Biological Motion Perception: Pigeons Use Feet Local Motion to Determine Direction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Tong ◽  
Priyanka Mensinkai
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Visual Processes ◽  
Biological Motion Perception ◽  
Ecological Implications ◽  
Direction Of Movement ◽  
Point Light

The study examines the visual processes underlying the detection of the motion of land animals, or biological motion. The ability to process the motion of other living beings has profound ecological implications in the wilderness and in our everyday life. Earlier models suggest that there are two distinct ways to process this information. One uses the shape of an entire figure and one uses the motion of one part of the body. In this experiment, we aim to study whether the local motion of the feet or the configuration of the body is used to determine the direction into which a figure is facing. We do this by training pigeons to discriminate facing direction of a stationary walking point‐light figure. Pigeons chose one of two walkers by pecking on a touch screen. Once the task was learned, catch trials of backwards walkers were introduced. This kind of display gives the pigeon opposing information about direction. While the shape of the walker tells them it is walking one way, the feet give the impression that it is moving in the other. Pigeons were successful in learning to discriminate directions and at the introduction of the catch trials, most birds used the local motion cue of the feet to determine direction. The results indicate that pigeons seem to being using the feet, rather than the shape of a figure, to process direction of movement. In conjunction with previous literature, this study suggests that there exists an innate “life detector” specialized for filtering the movement of the feet.

The Effect of Object and Event Orientation on Perception of Biological Motion

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Shipley
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Familiar Object ◽  
Object Orientation ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
Event Perception ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Biological Motion Perception ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion ◽  
Unfamiliar Object

Detection and recognition of point-light walking is reduced when the display is inverted, or turned upside down. This indicates that past experience influences biological motion perception. The effect could be the result of either presenting the human form in a novel orientation or presenting the event of walking in a novel orientation, as the two are confounded in the case of walking on feet. This study teased apart the effects of object and event orientation by examining detection accuracy for upright and inverted displays of a point-light figure walking on his hands. Detection of this walker was greater in the upright display, which had a familiar event orientation and an unfamiliar object orientation, than in the inverted display, which had a familiar object orientation and an unfamiliar event orientation. This finding supports accounts of event perception and recognition that are based on spatiotemporal patterns of motion associated with the dynamics of an event.

scholarly journals Perception of Biological Motion in Central and Peripheral Visual Fields

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 320-326
Author(s):  
Ilze Laicāne ◽  
Jurģis Šķilters ◽  
Vsevolod Lyakhovetskii ◽  
Elīna Zimaša ◽  
Gunta Krūmiņa
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Visual Fields ◽  
The Body ◽  
Peripheral Visual Field ◽  
Minimal Amount ◽  
Central Visual Field ◽  
Biological Motion Perception ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion

Abstract Studies analysing biological motion perception based on reduced number of dots have demonstrated that biological motion can be perceived even when only the lower part of the body is visible or when the number of dots representing the object is reduced. What is the minimal amount of information that enables biological motion to be distinguished from its scrambled version? The results of the current experiment demonstrate that biological motion can be distinguished from its scrambled version when the object is formed of approximately 5 (4.7 ± 0.1) dots. Additionally, we also investigated whether the threshold value for biological motion perception differs in central and peripheral visual fields. By using stimulus magnification, we demonstrate that the number of dots sufficient for biological motion perception is similar in the central visual field and near periphery. Hence, stimulus magnification can compensate for reduced task performance in the peripheral visual field. The current results suggest that reduced performance of biological motion perception in the peripheral visual field (as demonstrated in other studies) is due to difficulties with the global perception of biological motion.

Biological Motion Detection in Rats

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura MacKinnon
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Visual Cue ◽  
Ballistic Motion ◽  
Theory Versus ◽  
Local Movement ◽  
Life Detection ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Point Light Display ◽  
Innate Ability

This study will examine the rodent visual system by assessing whether they can discriminate between various biological motion point‐light displays. Pilot data suggests that rats can discriminate between a human walker point‐light display walking left and right. Therefore this study will investigate which kind of information rats use to differentiate biological motion; the overall shape of the moving body (conformational theory) versus the local movement of the feet (ballistic motion theory). First, we will train the rats to discriminate between human point‐light displays walking in opposite directions using a modified Morris water maze. Then we will observe their reactions to a backwards‐walking display. If the rats use shape as a visual cue for biological motion, they will swim towards the goal arm that corresponds to the direction the backwards walker is facing. However, if the rats use ballistic motion as a visual cue for biological motion, they will swim towards the goal arm that corresponds to the direction the backwards walker is moving. We hypothesize that rats use the ballistic motion of the feet as a cue for life detection. This is the first study to investigate whether rats can detect biological motion, and will contribute to the theory that animals have evolved an innate ability to quickly detect biological motion of vital importance.

scholarly journals Neural and Neuromimetic Perception: A Comparative Study of Gender Classification from Human Gait

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 10402-1-10402-11
Author(s):  
Viswadeep Sarangi ◽  
Adar Pelah ◽  
William Edward Hahn ◽  
Elan Barenholtz
Keyword(s):  
Biological Motion ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Movement Analysis ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Human Gait ◽  
Computational Performance ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Perceptual Characteristics ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion

Abstract Humans are adept at perceiving biological motion for purposes such as the discrimination of gender. Observers classify the gender of a walker at significantly above chance levels from a point-light distribution of joint trajectories. However, performance drops to chance level or below for vertically inverted stimuli, a phenomenon known as the inversion effect. This lack of robustness may reflect either a generic learning mechanism that has been exposed to insufficient instances of inverted stimuli or the activation of specialized mechanisms that are pre-tuned to upright stimuli. To address this issue, the authors compare the psychophysical performance of humans with the computational performance of neuromimetic machine-learning models in the classification of gender from gait by using the same biological motion stimulus set. Experimental results demonstrate significant similarities, which include those in the predominance of kinematic motion cues over structural cues in classification accuracy. Second, learning is expressed in the presence of the inversion effect in the models as in humans, suggesting that humans may use generic learning systems in the perception of biological motion in this task. Finally, modifications are applied to the model based on human perception, which mitigates the inversion effect and improves performance accuracy. The study proposes a paradigm for the investigation of human gender perception from gait and makes use of perceptual characteristics to develop a robust artificial gait classifier for potential applications such as clinical movement analysis.

Biological Motion Shown Backwards: The Apparent-Facing Effect

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3262 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Pavlova ◽  
Ingeborg Krägeloh-Mann ◽  
Niels Birbaumer ◽  
Alexander Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Presentation Mode ◽  
Reverse Transformation ◽  
Perceptual Identification ◽  
Perceptual Development ◽  
Apparent Direction ◽  
Point Light ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion ◽  
Order Of Presentation

We examined how showing a film backwards (reverse transformation) affects the visual perception of biological motion. Adults and 6-year-old children saw first a point-light quadruped moving normally as if on a treadmill, and then saw the same display in reverse transformation. For other groups the order of presentation was the opposite. Irrespective of the presentation mode (normal or reverse) and of the facing of the point-light figure (rightward or leftward), a pronounced apparent-facing effect was observed: the perceptual identification of a display was mainly determined by the apparent direction of locomotion. The findings suggest that in interpreting impoverished point-light biological-motion stimuli the visual system may neglect distortions caused by showing a film backwards. This property appears to be robust across perceptual development. Possible explanations of the apparent-facing effect are discussed.

Biological Motion Perception: From Inversion to Upright Display Orientation

Perception ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 25 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 118-118
Author(s):  
M A Pavlova
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Presentation Rate ◽  
Event Perception ◽  
Veridical Perception ◽  
Invariant Structure ◽  
Upright Orientation ◽  
Biological Motion Perception ◽  
The Right ◽  
Perception Of Biological Motion

How does biological motion perception change with display orientation? As previously shown, display inversion (180°) completely prevents veridical perception of biological motion. However, with upright orientation (0°), observers are able to recover the invariant structure through biological motion despite reverse transformation (showing the film backwards) or changing the presentation rate (Pavlova, 1995 Perception24 Supplement, 112). In the present experiments, observers saw the biological motion pattern at various display deviations, from inverted to upright orientation (180°, 150°, 120°, 90°, 60°, 30°, 0°), in the right or left hemifield, on a circular screen monitor. The display consisted of an array of 11 dots on the main joints of an invisible walker moving as if on a treadmill. While viewing (60 s), observers pressed a key each time their perception changed from one stable percept to another (eg when the direction of apparent rotation of the pattern reversed). The perceived multistability (the number of key-presses) increased as orientation was varied from inverted to 90°, and then decreased between 90° and upright. The recognition of walking figure improved abruptly with changing orientation: at deviations of 60° and 30° most observer reported seeing the walking figure spontaneously, yet the pattern was seen as multistable. The findings imply the relative power of constraints (such as orientation) in perception of biological motion that is discussed in relation to the KSD principle in event perception [Runeson, 1994, in Perceiving Events and Objects Eds Jansson, Epstein, Bergström (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum) pp 383 – 405].

Effects of TMS over Premotor and Superior Temporal Cortices on Biological Motion Perception

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 896-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Michelle van Kemenade ◽  
Neil Muggleton ◽  
Vincent Walsh ◽  
Ayse Pinar Saygin
Keyword(s):  
Motion Perception ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
Control Site ◽  
Object Motion ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Biological Motion Perception ◽  
Point Light

Using MRI-guided off-line TMS, we targeted two areas implicated in biological motion processing: ventral premotor cortex (PMC) and posterior STS (pSTS), plus a control site (vertex). Participants performed a detection task on noise-masked point-light displays of human animations and scrambled versions of the same stimuli. Perceptual thresholds were determined individually. Performance was measured before and after 20 sec of continuous theta burst stimulation of PMC, pSTS, and control (each tested on different days). A matched nonbiological object motion task (detecting point-light displays of translating polygons) served as a further control. Data were analyzed within the signal detection framework. Sensitivity (d′) significantly decreased after TMS of PMC. There was a marginally significant decline in d′ after TMS of pSTS but not of control site. Criterion (response bias) was also significantly affected by TMS over PMC. Specifically, subjects made significantly more false alarms post-TMS of PMC. These effects were specific to biological motion and not found for the nonbiological control task. To summarize, we report that TMS over PMC reduces sensitivity to biological motion perception. Furthermore, pSTS and PMC may have distinct roles in biological motion processing as behavioral performance differs following TMS in each area. Only TMS over PMC led to a significant increase in false alarms, which was not found for other brain areas or for the control task. TMS of PMC may have interfered with refining judgments about biological motion perception, possibly because access to the perceiver's own motor representations was compromised.

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