Kawabe Takahiro
NTT Communication Science Laboratories, 3-1, Morinosato Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa, 243-0198, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 26;15(1):14681. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-99069-7.
Humans can readily perceive the direction of liquid flow, yet computational modeling of this process remains challenging due to the complexity of non-rigid motion. Previous models based on neural activities in the primary visual cortex (V1) and the middle temporal area (MT) have been effective in explaining rigid motion perception. In this study, we extend the V1-MT model to address the perception of liquid flow direction. Participants observed video clips of liquid flow and reported the perceived direction, while the V1-MT model was used to predict these perceptions. The winner-take-all approach failed to accurately capture the observed perceptions. In contrast, a weighted mean of directional energies yielded strong predictions, highlighting that the human visual system spatially integrates directional energies from non-rigid motion components. These findings broaden the applicability of the V1-MT model to non-rigid motion and provide insights into how the visual system bridges the gap between computational models of rigid and non-rigid motion perception.
人类能够轻松感知液体流动的方向，但由于非刚性运动的复杂性，对这一过程进行计算建模仍然具有挑战性。先前基于初级视觉皮层（V1）和颞中区（MT）神经活动的模型在解释刚性运动感知方面很有效。在本研究中，我们扩展了V1-MT模型以解决液体流动方向的感知问题。参与者观看液体流动的视频片段并报告感知到的方向，同时使用V1-MT模型来预测这些感知。胜者全得方法未能准确捕捉到观察到的感知。相比之下，方向能量的加权平均值产生了强有力的预测，突出表明人类视觉系统在空间上整合了来自非刚性运动成分的方向能量。这些发现拓宽了V1-MT模型对非刚性运动的适用性，并为视觉系统如何弥合刚性和非刚性运动感知计算模型之间的差距提供了见解。
