On the sufficiency of the velocity field for perception of heading

Warren, William H.; Blackwell, Arshavir W.; Kurtz, Kenneth J.; Hatsopoulos, Nicholas G.; Kalish, Michael L.

doi:10.1007/bf00216964

Cited by 151 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…However, Warren et al (1991; found no decline in performance with full-screen displays in which the directions of individual vectors were randomized within a 45°envelope. This indicates that the redundancy in the global flow field allows the visual system to achieve high precision despite such local errors.…”

Section: Postural Adjustmentsmentioning

confidence: 77%

The role of central and peripheral vision in perceiving the direction of self-motion

Warren

Kurtz

1992

Perception & Psychophysics

209

140

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Three experiments were performed to examine the role that central and peripheral vision play in the perception of the direction of translational self-motion, or heading, from optical flow. When the focus of radial outflow was in central vision, heading accuracy was slightly higher with central circular displays (10°-25°diameter) than with peripheral annular displays (40°diameter), indicating that central vision is somewhat more sensitive to this information. Performance dropped rapidly as the eccentricity of the focus of outflow increased, indicating that the periphery does not accurately extract radial flow patterns. Together with recent research on vection and postural adjustments, these results contradict the peripheral dominance hypothesis that peripheral vision is specialized for perception of self-motion. We propose a functional sensitivity hypothesis-thai. self-motion is perceived on the basis of optical information rather than the retinal locus of stimulation, but that central and peripheral vision are differentially sensitive to the information characteristic of each retinal region.Research on the role of vision in the perception of selfmotion has emphasized three phenomena induced by optical flow stimulation: (1) vection, or the subjective experience of self-motion; (2) postural adjustments such as body sway or tilt during standing; and (3) the perception of heading, or the direction of self-motion. To some extent, these phenomena are independent of one another, for vection and heading are commonly perceived without postural adjustments, heading can be perceived without the sensation of vection, and postural compensation has been reported with optical velocities too low to induce vection (Delorme & Martin, 1986;Lee & Lishman, 1975;Stoffregen, 1986). However, to the extent that vection is experienced in a definite direction and postural adjustments are directionally specific, the extraction of information about heading is implicated.On the basis of evidence from the first two domains, claims have frequently been made for a peripheral dominance hypothesis-specifically, that peripheral vision plays the dominant role in the perception and control of selfmotion and that central vision is relatively insensitive to such information. In their review, Dichgans and Brandt (1978) concluded that, "The peripheral retina dominates visually induced vection and spatial orientation, whereas central vision dominates pattern perception and object motion detection" (p. 777; italics in original). Our purpose in the present paper is to consider the role ofdifferent retinal regions in perceiving self-motion and to include a review

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Section: Postural Adjustmentsmentioning

confidence: 77%

The role of central and peripheral vision in perceiving the direction of self-motion

Warren

Kurtz

1992

Perception & Psychophysics

209

140

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“…Crowell et al 1998). Otherwise, the direction of locomotion is assumed to be primarily inferred from the characteristic optic¯ow induced on the eyes during locomotion (Warren and Hannon 1990;Warren et al 1991).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optomotor course control in flies with largely asymmetric visual input

Kern

Egelhaaf

2000

Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behav

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We have studied freely¯ying and walking¯ies as well as¯ies¯ying in a¯ight simulator in order to discover how functionally blinding one of the eyes affects the¯y's ability to move straight. It is hard to tell just by observing the animals' movements whether they have been deprived of vision in one eye. Statistical analysis is need to show that there are dierences in the locomotory paths of monocular and binocular¯ies: monocular¯ies tend to turn slightly towards the side of the seeing eye. It is possible that the superimposed translational and rotational optic¯ow ®elds, generated on the trajectory of monocular¯ies, sum to zero net ow. This overall¯ow over the retina of the open eye might lead to a state of optomotor equilibrium.

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“…The presence of independently moving objects in the optic flow field has been shown to impair heading judgment only when the object moves across the direction of travel, obscuring the veridical focus of expansion (Warren & Saunders, 1995;Royden & Hildreth, 1996). Subjects can also tolerate significant amounts of velocity noise in the optic flow display, suggesting that heading perception primarily relies on the directional pattern of motion in the optic flow field (Warren, Blackwell, Kurtz, Hatsopoulos, & Kalish, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A neural model of visually guided steering, obstacle avoidance, and route selection.

Elder¹,

Grossberg²,

Mingolla³

2009

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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A neural model is developed to explain how humans can approach a goal object on foot while steering around obstacles to avoid collisions in a cluttered environment. The model uses optic flow from a 3D virtual reality environment to determine the position of objects based on motion discontinuities, and computes heading direction, or the direction of self-motion, from global optic flow. The cortical representation of heading interacts with the representations of a goal and obstacles such that the goal acts as an attractor of heading, while obstacles act as repellers. In addition the model maintains fixation on the goal object by generating smooth pursuit eye movements. Eye rotations can distort the optic flow field, complicating heading perception, and the model uses extraretinal signals to correct for this distortion and accurately represent heading. The model explains how motion processing mechanisms in cortical areas MT, MST, and VIP can be used to guide steering. The model quantitatively simulates human psychophysical data about visually-guided steering, obstacle avoidance, and route selection.Key Words: Heading Perception, Steering, Optic Flow, Obstacle, Goal, Pursuit Eye Movement, Gain Fields, Peak Shift, V2, MT, MST, VIP, LIP 3 IntroductionMany important steering tasks are guided by visual information, including walking through a cluttered environment (Fajen & Warren, 2003), driving (Land & Horwood, 1995;Hildreth, Beusmans, Boer, & Royden, 2000;Wallis, Chatziastros, & Bülthoff, 2002), vehicle braking (Lee, 1976, piloting an aircraft (Gibson, Olum, & Rosenblatt, 1955;Beall & Loomis, 1997), and intercepting a moving target on foot (Fajen & Warren, 2004). Steering through a cluttered environment involves the selection of a path that avoids obstacles and simultaneously approaches the intended goal. Human steering is guided by visual information about the spatial layout of the environment and the direction of self-motion through the environment, as well as proprioceptive feedback and information from other sensory systems. In particular, the visual system provides information about the relative positions of the goal object and obstacles in the environment.Movement through the world creates a full-field pattern of motion on the retina, called optic flow, which contains information about the direction of self-motion, or heading (Gibson, 1950). In principle, optic flow can be used to compute heading (Longuet-Higgins & Prazdny, 1980). During translational movement of the eye, the optic flow field contains a singularity, called the focus of expansion, which specifies the direction of heading in the absence of an eye rotation.Figures 1 & 2 Whereas optic flow relates observer motion to the available visual stimuli, recent research clarifies how visual information governs the dynamics of human navigational behavior. Fajen and Warren (2003) studied the dynamics of human steering behavior in simple goal approach and obstacle avoidance tasks using an immersive virtual reality system. They found that human performa...

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On the sufficiency of the velocity field for perception of heading

Cited by 151 publications

References 33 publications

The role of central and peripheral vision in perceiving the direction of self-motion

The role of central and peripheral vision in perceiving the direction of self-motion

Optomotor course control in flies with largely asymmetric visual input

A neural model of visually guided steering, obstacle avoidance, and route selection.

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