Processing shape, motion and three-dimensional shape-from-motion in the human cortex.

Full Abstract

Shape and motion are complementary visual features and each appears to be processed in unique cortical areas. However, object motion is a powerful cue for the perception of three-dimensional (3-D) shape, implying that the two types of information--motion and form--are well integrated. We conducted a series of fMRI experiments aimed at identifying the brain regions involved in inferring 3-D shape from motion cues. For each subject, we identified regions in occipital-temporal cortex that were activated when perceiving:
(i) motion in unstructured random-dot patterns, (ii) 2-D and 3-D line drawing shapes, and (iii) 3-D shapes defined by motion cues (shape-from-motion, SFM). We found closely adjacent areas in the lateral occipital region activated by random motion and line-drawing shapes. In addition, we found that the SFM stimuli produced a greater MRI signal in only one of the areas identified with the random motion and line-drawing stimuli:
the superior lateral occipital (SLO) region. High-resolution analysis showed that SFM objects and line drawings were processed in separate but adjacent sub-regions in SLO, suggesting that SLO codes object shape but retains topographic segregation based on shape cues. Expanding the analysis to the entire cortex identified a parietal area that had overlapping activation for both SFM and line drawings and increased MRI signal for 3-D versus 2-D shapes, suggesting this area is important for processing shape information.

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Author information

Author/s: Murray, Scott O (SO); Olshausen, Bruno A (BA); Woods, David L (DL);

Affiliation: Center for Neuroscience, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA. somurray(-atsign-)ucdavis.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) (Cereb Cortex), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-May; vol 13 (issue 5) : pp 508-16

Dates: Created 2003/04/07; Completed 2003/05/28; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12679297, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Brain Mapping - methods
Form Perception - physiology
Humans

Motion Perception - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Visual Cortex - physiology

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