Abstract
Predicting the trajectories of moving objects in our surroundings is important for many life scenarios, such as driving, walking, reaching, hunting and combat. We determined human subjects’ performance and task-related brain activity in a motion trajectory prediction task. The task required spatial and motion working memory as well as the ability to extrapolate motion information in time to predict future object locations. We showed that the neural circuits associated with motion prediction included frontal, parietal and insular cortex, as well as the thalamus and the visual cortex. Interestingly, deactivation of many of these regions seemed to be more closely related to task performance. The differential activity during motion prediction vs. direct observation was also correlated with task performance. The neural networks involved in our visual motion prediction task are significantly different from those that underlie visual motion memory and imagery. Our results set the stage for the examination of the effects of deficiencies in these networks, such as those caused by aging and mental disorders, on visual motion prediction and its consequences on mobility related daily activities.
Highlights
The ability to mentally keep track and predict motion trajectories of moving objects is important in many human activities, such as driving, walking on the street, reaching, or taking aim at enemies in battles
It is clear from previous studies that motion information processing without direct perception involves a large number of brain regions far beyond the visual cortex
Memory and imagery have been shown to be associated with task-induced deactivation of many brain regions, some of which belong to the default mode network (DMN), which consists of a number of midline frontal, parietal and temporal regions [42,43,44,45]
Summary
The ability to mentally keep track and predict motion trajectories of moving objects is important in many human activities, such as driving, walking on the street, reaching, or taking aim at enemies in battles. The brain substrates of motion trajectory prediction and the influence of their functions on human subject performance have not been systematically examined. We quantitatively measured human subjects’ performance in a motion trajectory prediction task, and examined taskrelated brain activity modulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in an event-related design. It is clear from previous studies that motion information processing without direct perception involves a large number of brain regions far beyond the visual cortex. Memory and imagery have been shown to be associated with task-induced deactivation of many brain regions, some of which belong to the DMN, which consists of a number of (largely) midline frontal, parietal and temporal regions [42,43,44,45] (and see [46]). It would be of importance to understand the role of both regional activations and deactivations
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