Visual Motion Processing and Detection — from Biology to Modeling

Abstract

This chapter concerns the visual motion processing and detection taking place in the visual cortex of the primate brain, including the cortical areas such as the primary visual cortex (V1), the middle temporal (MT) area, and the medial superior temporal (MST) area. Specifically, the following topics are discussed: (a) the selectivity for local motion direction of the V1 neurons and the component MT neurons, (b) the aperture problem and the selectivity for global motion velocity of the pattern MT neurons, and (c) the selectivity for global optic flow patterns of the MST neurons. For each topic, the basic psychophysical and neurophysiological findings of the relevant visual cortical area will be first summarized, and then the computational models of the visual processing in the corresponding area will be presented. The computational models are hoped to serve two purposes: to help neuroscientists reveal the possible neural mechanisms for visual motion processing and perception in the brain, and to familiarize the computer scientists/engineers with the current progress in understanding the biological visual motion processing to provide additional foundation based on which new algorithms may be developed for solving computer vision problems such as motion detection and estimation.