During self-motion, the complex patterns of visual motion formed across the retina, often referred to as "optic flow", provide a rich source of information describing our dynamic relationship within the environment. Psychophysical studies indicate the existence of specialized detectors for these complex patterns of motion (radial, circular, planar) which are consistent with the visual motion properties of cells in the medial superior temporal area (MST) of non-human primates. Here we used psychophysics together with computational modeling to examine the structural and functional role of these specialized detectors in visual motion processing.

By applying a variety of modeling techniques to the modes of neural information transfer, our goal is to a) link perceptual performance and neurophysiological properties within a computational framework of visual motion processing and b) further elucidate the computational function and neural structure of cortical regions within the visual motion pathway.