Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Humans and many other predators have two eyes that are set a short distance apart so that an extensive region of the world is seen simultaneously by both eyes from slightly different points of view. Although the images of the world are essentially two-dimensional, we vividly see the world as three-dimensional. This is true for static as well as dynamic images. We discuss local constraints for the perception of three-dimensional binocular motion in a geometric-probabilistic framework. It is shown that Bayesian models of binocular 3D motion can explain perceptual bias under uncertainty and predict perceived velocity under ambiguity. The models exploit biologically plausible constraints of local motion and disparity processing in a binocular viewing geometry. Results from psychophysical experiments and an fMRI study support the idea that local constraints of motion and disparity processing are combined late in the visual processing hierarchy to establish perceived 3D motion direction. The methods and results reported here are likely to stimulate computational, psychophysical, and neuroscientific research because they address the fundamental issue of how 3D motion is represented in the human visual system.
Author: Suzanne Heron
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1757137813