Visual Ecology of Motion

Basic data for this project

Description

The project aims at an ecological perspective on visual motion, one of the most important capacities of the visual system. Rather than focussing on the visual input, i.e. the spatio-temporal variations of luminance on the retina, I propose to start earlier, namely at the ecological sources that give rise to retinal motion patterns. The motion of oneself and the motion of others are the two main generators of retinal motion. Past research has shown fundamental differences between tlieir computational requirements and perceptual mechanisms, suggesting that they are performed in different cortical pathways. Surprisingly, however, ecologically relevant situations containing both types of motion, as when one walks amongst others, have never been thoroughly investigated. Computational considerations suggest, on the one hand, that the two types of motion will inflict problems onto each other since they violate respective computational prerequisites. On the other hand, since both are supported by distinct perceptual mechanisms there may be synergies and cross talk between the systems. The project will investigate these synergies and conflicts with a combination of psychophysical experiments and computational modelling. It will use several different paradigms that together shall give a full picture of the mechanisms involved. The results will provide a better understanding of the pathways of visual motion analysis, a first description of perceptual mechanisms for self-motion control in a populated environment, and a conceptual clarification of visual motion analysis