A paradigm for characterizing motion misperception in people with typical vision and low vision

Abstract

SIGNIFICANCE Motion perception is an essential part of visual function. Understanding how people with low vision perceive motion can therefore inform rehabilitation strategies and assistive technology. Our study introduces the notion of Bayesian biases in motion perception and suggests that some people with low vision are susceptible to these systematic misperceptions. PURPOSE We aimed to develop a paradigm that can efficiently characterize motion percepts in people with low vision and compare their responses with well-known misperceptions made by people with typical vision when targets are hard to see. METHODS We recruited a small cohort of individuals with reduced acuity and contrast sensitivity (n = 5) as well as a comparison cohort with typical vision (n = 5) to complete a psychophysical study. Study participants were asked to judge the motion direction of a tilted rhombus that was either high or low contrast. In a series of trials, the rhombus oscillated vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Participants indicated the perceived motion direction using a number wheel with 12 possible directions, and statistical tests were used to examine response biases. RESULTS All participants with typical vision showed systematic misperceptions well predicted by a Bayesian inference model. Specifically, their perception of vertical or horizontal motion was biased toward directions orthogonal to the long axis of the rhombus. They had larger biases for hard-to-see (low contrast) stimuli. Two participants with low vision had a similar bias, but with no difference between high- and low-contrast stimuli. The other participants with low vision were unbiased in their percepts or biased in the opposite direction. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that some people with low vision may misperceive motion in a systematic way similar to people with typical vision. However, we observed large individual differences. Future work will aim to uncover reasons for such differences and identify aspects of vision that predict susceptibility.