The Neuronal Basis of an Illusory Motion Percept Is Explained by Decorrelation of Parallel Motion Pathways

Emilio Salazar-Gatzimas; Margarida Agrochao; James E. Fitzgerald; Damon A. Clark

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.007

The Neuronal Basis of an Illusory Motion Percept Is Explained by Decorrelation of Parallel Motion Pathways

Emilio Salazar-Gatzimas, Margarida Agrochao, James E. Fitzgerald, Damon A. Clark^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Neurobiology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Both vertebrates and invertebrates perceive illusory motion, known as “reverse-phi,” in visual stimuli that contain sequential luminance increments and decrements. However, increment (ON) and decrement (OFF) signals are initially processed by separate visual neurons, and parallel elementary motion detectors downstream respond selectively to the motion of light or dark edges, often termed ON- and OFF-edges. It remains unknown how and where ON and OFF signals combine to generate reverse-phi motion signals. Here, we show that each of Drosophila's elementary motion detectors encodes motion by combining both ON and OFF signals. Their pattern of responses reflects combinations of increments and decrements that co-occur in natural motion, serving to decorrelate their outputs. These results suggest that the general principle of signal decorrelation drives the functional specialization of parallel motion detection channels, including their selectivity for moving light or dark edges.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	3748-3762.e8
Journal	Current Biology
Volume	28
Issue number	23
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.007
State	Published - Dec 3 2018

Funding

We thank T. Clandinin, J. Demb, and A. Hermundstad for helpful comments. Flies used in this study were obtained from the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (NIH P40OD018537). E.S.-G. is supported by the DoD, Air Force Office of Research NDSE GRF (32 CFR 168a). J.E.F. is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This work was supported by NIH R01EY026555, NIH P30EY026878, NSF IOS1558103, a Searle Scholar Award, a Sloan Fellowship in Neuroscience, the Smith Family Foundation, and the E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation. We thank T. Clandinin, J. Demb, and A. Hermundstad for helpful comments. Flies used in this study were obtained from the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center ( NIH P40OD018537 ). E.S.-G. is supported by the DoD, Air Force Office of Research NDSE GRF ( 32 CFR 168a ). J.E.F. is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute . This work was supported by NIH R01EY026555 , NIH P30EY026878 , NSF IOS1558103 , a Searle Scholar Award , a Sloan Fellowship in Neuroscience , the Smith Family Foundation , and the E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation .

Keywords

Drosophila
ON and OFF channels
decorrelation
direction selectivity
elementary motion detectors
illusory motion
natural scenes
natural statistics
parallel pathways
reverse-phi

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

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title = "The Neuronal Basis of an Illusory Motion Percept Is Explained by Decorrelation of Parallel Motion Pathways",

abstract = "Both vertebrates and invertebrates perceive illusory motion, known as “reverse-phi,” in visual stimuli that contain sequential luminance increments and decrements. However, increment (ON) and decrement (OFF) signals are initially processed by separate visual neurons, and parallel elementary motion detectors downstream respond selectively to the motion of light or dark edges, often termed ON- and OFF-edges. It remains unknown how and where ON and OFF signals combine to generate reverse-phi motion signals. Here, we show that each of Drosophila's elementary motion detectors encodes motion by combining both ON and OFF signals. Their pattern of responses reflects combinations of increments and decrements that co-occur in natural motion, serving to decorrelate their outputs. These results suggest that the general principle of signal decorrelation drives the functional specialization of parallel motion detection channels, including their selectivity for moving light or dark edges.",

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The Neuronal Basis of an Illusory Motion Percept Is Explained by Decorrelation of Parallel Motion Pathways

Abstract

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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