Visual and Non-Visual Contributions to the Perception of Object Motion during Self-Motion

Many locomotor tasks involve interactions with moving objects. When observer (i.e., self-)motion is accompanied by object motion, the optic flow field includes a component due to self-motion and a component due to object motion. For moving observers to perceive the movement of other objects relative...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPloS one Vol. 8; no. 2; p. e55446
Main Authors Fajen, Brett R., Matthis, Jonathan S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 07.02.2013
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Adult
Animal behavior
Animal cognition
Automobile industry
Biology
Brain research
Experimental psychology
Female
Humans
Hypotheses
Interception
Male
Medicine
Motion
Motion detection
Object motion
Optic flow
Optics
Perception
Perceptions
Physiology
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Studies
Visual Perception
Visual stimuli
Visual system
Young Adult
New York
United States > US
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Summary:Many locomotor tasks involve interactions with moving objects. When observer (i.e., self-)motion is accompanied by object motion, the optic flow field includes a component due to self-motion and a component due to object motion. For moving observers to perceive the movement of other objects relative to the stationary environment, the visual system could recover the object-motion component - that is, it could factor out the influence of self-motion. In principle, this could be achieved using visual self-motion information, non-visual self-motion information, or a combination of both. In this study, we report evidence that visual information about the speed (experiment 1) and direction (experiment 2) of self-motion plays a role in recovering the object-motion component even when non-visual self-motion information is also available. However, the magnitude of the effect was less than one would expect if subjects relied entirely on visual self-motion information. Taken together with previous studies, we conclude that when self-motion is real and actively generated, both visual and non-visual self-motion information contribute to the perception of object motion. We also consider the possible role of this process in visually guided interception and avoidance of moving objects.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: BF JM. Performed the experiments: JM. Analyzed the data: BF JM. Wrote the paper: BF JM.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0055446