Novel method of extracting motion from natural movies

BACKGROUND The visual system in primates can be segregated into motion and shape pathways. Interaction occurs at multiple stages along these pathways. Processing of shape-from-motion and biological motion is considered to be a higher-order integration process involving motion and shape information. However, relatively limited types of stimuli have been used in previous studies on these integration processes. NEW METHOD We propose a new algorithm to extract object motion information from natural movies and to move random dots in accordance with the information. The object motion information is extracted by estimating the dynamics of local normal vectors of the image intensity projected onto the x-y plane of the movie. RESULTS An electrophysiological experiment on two adult common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus) showed that the natural and random dot movies generated with this new algorithm yielded comparable neural responses in the middle temporal visual area. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS In principle, this algorithm provided random dot motion stimuli containing shape information for arbitrary natural movies. This new method is expected to expand the neurophysiological and psychophysical experimental protocols to elucidate the integration processing of motion and shape information in biological systems. CONCLUSIONS The novel algorithm proposed here was effective in extracting object motion information from natural movies and provided new motion stimuli to investigate higher-order motion information processing.