Division of Sensory and Cognitive Information, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585, Japan and.
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, New York 14627
J Neurosci. 2014 Nov 19;34(47):15508-21. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1072-14.2014.
Neural processing of 2D visual motion has been studied extensively, but relatively little is known about how visual cortical neurons represent visual motion trajectories that include a component toward or away from the observer (motion in depth). Psychophysical studies have demonstrated that humans perceive motion in depth based on both changes in binocular disparity over time (CD cue) and interocular velocity differences (IOVD cue). However, evidence for neurons that represent motion in depth has been limited, especially in primates, and it is unknown whether such neurons make use of CD or IOVD cues. We show that approximately one-half of neurons in macaque area MT are selective for the direction of motion in depth, and that this selectivity is driven primarily by IOVD cues, with a small contribution from the CD cue. Our results establish that area MT, a central hub of the primate visual motion processing system, contains a 3D representation of visual motion.
二维视觉运动的神经处理已经得到了广泛的研究，但对于视觉皮层神经元如何表示包括朝向或远离观察者（深度运动）的分量的视觉运动轨迹，我们知之甚少。心理物理学研究表明，人类基于随时间变化的双眼视差（CD 线索）和双眼速度差（IOVD 线索）来感知深度运动。然而，支持表示深度运动的神经元的证据是有限的，特别是在灵长类动物中，并且尚不清楚这些神经元是否利用 CD 或 IOVD 线索。我们表明，猕猴 MT 区约有一半的神经元对深度运动的方向具有选择性，这种选择性主要由 IOVD 线索驱动，CD 线索的贡献较小。我们的结果表明，作为灵长类动物视觉运动处理系统的中枢枢纽，MT 区包含了对视觉运动的 3D 表示。
