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Motion changes response balance between ON and OFF visual pathways

Gloria Luo-Li,Reece E. Mazade,Q. Zaidi,J. Alonso,A. Freeman

Published 2018 in Communications Biology

ABSTRACT

Humans are faster at detecting dark than light stationary stimuli, a temporal difference that originates early in the visual pathway. Here we show that this difference reverses when stimuli move, making detection faster for moving lights than darks. Human subjects judged the direction of moving edges and bars, and made faster and more accurate responses for light than for dark stimuli. This light/dark asymmetry is greatest at low speeds and disappears at high speeds. In parallel experiments, we recorded responses in the cat visual cortex for moving bars and again find that responses are faster for light bars than for dark bars moving at low speeds. We show that differences in the luminance-response function between ON and OFF pathways can reproduce these findings, and may explain why ON pathways are used for slow-motion image stabilization in many species. Luo-Li et al. show that humans and cat cortical neurons respond faster to slowly moving light stimuli than to dark stimuli, contrary to previous findings for responses to stationary stimuli. The results may explain why ON visual pathways are used for slow-motion image stabilization in many species.

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