The Men On Beautiful Agony

find out where and how the brain processes three-dimensional motion

A team of neuroscientists has specified where and how the brain processes the 3D motion. The discovery was possible thanks to the use of specially developed computer screens and scans of the brain using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging).


Researchers have found, not without surprise that the 3D motion processing takes place in an area of \u200b\u200bthe brain (located just behind the ears) for a long time was thought to be responsible only for motion processing bidimensional (up, down, left and right).

This area, known simply as MT +, and its underlying neural circuitry, have been studied so well that even now most scientists had concluded that the 3D motion should be tried elsewhere.




This new study suggests that a large set of rich and important functions related to 3D motion perception may have been overlooked in the MT + region previously.


For the study, Alexander Huk, professor of neurobiology, and colleagues put several people to look at 3D views while remaining at rest for one to two hours in an MRI scanner fitted with a specialized imaging stereo, generating therefore three-dimensional perceptions.

fMRI scans revealed that the MT + area was intense neural activity when participants perceived objects (in this case, small dots) moving into your eyes or away from them.


The test also showed how the processing area MT + 3D movement: simultaneously encodes two types of signals from moving objects.


There is a disparity between what they see right and left eyes, called binocular disparity. We can clearly see when we close one eye or the other alternately, and the objects seem to jump from here to there.


For a moving object, the brain calculates the disparity change over time.


Simultaneously, an object coming directly into the eyes will move from right to left across the retina of the left eye and left to right the right retina.

The brain uses both data sources for processing three-dimensional motion.

That a stone fly from left to right or vice versa is not very important for the survival of the individual. Yes it is, however details of the trajectory as it flies directly into it. As pointed out by psychologist Lawrence Cormack, the type of three-dimensional motion most important thing we see is that of something approaching. Now, thanks to new study findings, this critical process will be able to be studied much better.