Interaction of cortical networks mediating object motion detection by moving observers

• Published in: Experimental brain research Vol. 221; no. 2; pp. 177 - 189
• Main Authors: Calabro, F. J., Vaina, L. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.08.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Applied physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Causality; Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Computed tomography; Cortex; Cortex (parietal); Data processing; Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision; Feedback, Physiological - physiology; Female; Functional Laterality; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hemispheric laterality; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Information processing; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Motion detection; Motion Perception - physiology; Movement - physiology; Nerve Net - blood supply; Nerve Net - physiology; Neural networks; Neurology; Neurosciences; Oxygen - blood; Photic Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance; Psychophysics; Research Article; Signal Detection, Psychological - physiology; Transports. Aerospace. Diving. Altitude; Vasoactive intestinal peptide; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Visual perception; Visual stimuli; Young Adult; United States > US; Massachusetts; fMRI; Connectivity; Object motion; Self-motion; Visual stimulus; Vection; Left hemisphere; Magnetic resonance; Multivariate analysis; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Eccentric movement; Visual task
• ISSN: 0014-4819; 1432-1106; 1432-1106
• DOI: 10.1007/s00221-012-3159-8

The task of parceling perceived visual motion into self- and object motion components is critical to safe and accurate visually guided navigation. In this paper, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the cortical areas functionally active in this task and the pattern connectivity among them to investigate the cortical regions of interest and networks that allow subjects to detect object motion separately from induced self-motion. Subjects were presented with nine textured objects during simulated forward self-motion and were asked to identify the target object, which had an additional, independent motion component toward or away from the observer. Cortical activation was distributed among occipital, intra-parietal and fronto-parietal areas. We performed a network analysis of connectivity data derived from partial correlation and multivariate Granger causality analyses among functionally active areas. This revealed four coarsely separated network clusters: bilateral V1 and V2; visually responsive occipito-temporal areas, including bilateral LO, V3A, KO (V3B) and hMT; bilateral VIP, DIPSM and right precuneus; and a cluster of higher, primarily left hemispheric regions, including the central sulcus, post-, pre- and sub-central sulci, pre-central gyrus, and FEF. We suggest that the visually responsive networks are involved in forming the representation of the visual stimulus, while the higher, left hemisphere cluster is involved in mediating the interpretation of the stimulus for action. Our main focus was on the relationships of activations during our task among the visually responsive areas. To determine the properties of the mechanism corresponding to the visual processing networks, we compared subjects’ psychophysical performance to a model of object motion detection based solely on relative motion among objects and found that it was inconsistent with observer performance. Our results support the use of scene context (e.g., eccentricity, depth) in the detection of object motion. We suggest that the cortical activation and visually responsive networks provide a potential substrate for this computation.