Motion speed modulates walking direction discrimination: The role of the feet in biological motion perception

The human visual system is tuned to the motions of biological entities, which provide potentially vital information for survival. The current study examines the interplay between motion speed and motion direction perception. Following a brief presentation of a point-light walker walking straight ahead or slightly leftward or rightward, observers were asked to quickly judge the walking direction (left or right). Participants showed better direction discrimination when the walker walked at a fast pace compared to a natural or slow pace, and this was not simply due to a difference in motion cycles. Moreover, walking direction sensitivity could be enhanced by increasing the feet motion speed alone, so long as the direction of feet movement was consistent with that of the other body parts. These findings demonstrate that our perception of walking direction is influenced by local motion speed, and highlight the role of the feet in biological motion perception.     

A computational theory for the perception of coherent visual motion

When we see motion, our perception of how one image feature moves depends on the behaviour of other features nearby. In particular, the Gestaltists proposed the law of shared common fate, in which features tend to be perceived as moving together, that is, coherently. Recent psychophysical findings, such as the cooperativity of the motion system and motion capture, support this law. Computationally, coherence is a sensible assumption, because if two features are close then they probably belong to the same object and thus tend to move together. Moreover, the measurement of local motion may be inaccurate and so the integration of motion information over large areas may help to improve the performance. Present theories of visual motion, however, do not account fully for these coherent motion percepts. We propose here a theory that does account for these phenomena and also provides a solution to the aperture problem, where the local information in the image flow is insufficient to specify the motion uniquely.     

Transparency and coherence in human motion perception

When confronted with moving images, the visual system often must decide whether the motion signals arise from a single object or from multiple objects. A special case of this problem arises when two independently moving gratings are superimposed. The gratings tend to cohere and move unambiguously in a single direction (pattern motion) instead of moving independently (component motion). Here we report that the tendency to see pattern motion depends very strongly on the luminance of the intersections (that is, to regions where the gratings overlap) relative to that of the gratings in a way that closely parallels the physics of transparency. When the luminance of these regions is chosen appropriately, pattern motion is destroyed and replaced by the appearance of two transparent gratings moving independently. The observations imply that motion detecting mechanisms in the visual system must have access to tacit 'knowledge' of the physics of transparency and that this knowledge can be used to segment the scene into different objects. The same knowledge could, in principle, be used to avoid confusing shadows with real object boundaries.     

Motion streaks provide a spatial code for motion direction.

Although many neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) of primates are direction selective, they provide ambiguous information about the direction of motion of a stimulus. There is evidence that one of the ways in which the visual system resolves this ambiguity is by computing, from the responses of V1 neurons, velocity components in two or more spatial orientations and then combining these velocity components. Here I consider another potential neural mechanism for determining motion direction. When a localized image feature moves fast enough, it should become smeared in space owing to temporal integration in the visual system, creating a spatial signal-a 'motion streak'-oriented in the direction of the motion. The orientation masking and adaptation experiments reported here show that these spatial signals for motion direction exist in the human visual system for feature speeds above about 1 feature width per 100 ms. Computer simulations show that this psychophysical finding is consistent with the known response properties of V1 neurons, and that these spatial signals, when appropriately processed, are sufficient to determine motion direction in natural images.     

Seismic evidence for convection-driven motion of the North American plate

Since the discovery of plate tectonics, the relative importance of driving forces of plate motion has been debated. Resolution of this issue has been hindered by uncertainties in estimates of basal traction, which controls the coupling between lithospheric plates and underlying mantle convection. Hotspot tracks preserve records of past plate motion and provide markers with which the relative motion between a plate's surface and underlying mantle regions may be examined. Here we show that the 115-140-Myr surface expression of the Great Meteor hotspot track in eastern North America is misaligned with respect to its location at 200 km depth, as inferred from plate-reconstruction models and seismic tomographic studies. The misalignment increases with age and is consistent with westward displacement of the base of the plate relative to its surface, at an average rate of 3.8 +/- 1.8 mm yr(-1). Here age-constrained 'piercing points' have enabled direct estimation of relative motion between the surface and underside of a plate. The relative displacement of the base is approximately parallel to seismic fast axes and calculated mantle flow, suggesting that asthenospheric flow may be deforming the lithospheric keel and exerting a driving force on this part of the North American plate.     

Cortical microstimulation influences perceptual judgements of motion direction

Neurons in the visual cortex respond selectively to perceptually salient features of the visual scene, such as the direction and speed of moving objects, the orientation of local contours, or the colour or relative depth of a visual pattern. It is commonly assumed that the brain constructs its percept of the visual scene from information encoded in the selective responses of such neurons. We have now tested this hypothesis directly by measuring the effect on psychophysical performance of modifying the firing rates of physiologically characterized neurons. We required rhesus monkeys to report the direction of motion in a visual display while we electrically stimulated clusters of directionally selective neurons in the middle temporal visual area (MT, or V5), an extrastriate area that plays a prominent role in the analysis of visual motion information. Microstimulation biased the animals' judgements towards the direction of motion encoded by the stimulated neurons. This result indicates that physiological properties measured at the neuronal level can be causally related to a specific aspect of perceptual performance.     

外部噪音对弱视运动知觉影响的研究

以水平方向运动的垂直光栅作为视觉刺激,在对比了15名屈光参差性弱视患者和19名正常对照被试的运动方向辨别成绩后发现,弱视眼和非弱视眼的对比敏感度比值在添加噪音前后均不随时间频率变化,且在各个时间频率下外部噪音对弱视患者和正常人运动知觉的影响大致相当.这表明弱视运动知觉时间信息处理系统大致完好,对于理解弱视损伤机制和制定治疗方案都具有启示意义.     

船舶运动状态下超声波风速风向动态测量建模与分析

根据超声波风速风向传感器工作原理,建立船舶运动状态下超声波风速风向动态测量的理论模型,并搭建船舶动态风速风向测量的模拟平台。在不同风速和风向条件下进行大量实验。数据分析表明,实验结果与理论模型一致。该结果可为船舶运动状态下风速风向动态测量误差补偿提供理论基础。     

Linguistic perception: neural processing of a whistled language

Silbo Gomero is a whistled language that is a rare and endangered surrogate of Spanish, used by shepherds on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands for communication over long distances on difficult terrain. Here we show that areas of the brain normally associated with spoken-language function are also activated in proficient whistlers, but not in controls, when they are listening to Silbo Gomero. Our findings demonstrate that the language-processing regions of the human brain can adapt to a surprisingly wide range of signalling forms.     

郯庐断裂带同造山期活动的前陆沉积证据

对大别山高压-超高压变质岩剥露地表的时间以及前陆盆地对郯庐断裂带起源的指示等重要问题进行了探讨。前陆盆地上三叠统至下-中侏罗统砂岩的端元组分分析结果指示了前陆盆地的物源区为大别造山带。砂岩成熟度从近断裂带处的1.54左右变化为远离断裂带处的5.4左右,反映了前陆沉积盆地中黄马青群及象山群应是直接来自大别造山带的原地沉积,也说明郯庐断裂带在晚三叠世时可能已经存在于大别山东缘。伊利石的结晶度多数介于0.24°~0.39°(Δ2θ),多型为2M型和1M 2M1型,指示了当时前陆沉积的热演化温度为190~320℃,从而反映了前陆沉积的最大原始埋深约为10 000 m。     

ERP evidence for neural dissociation of processing Chinese nouns and verbs

To investigate whether there is neural dissociation between processing Chinese nouns and verbs， event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 17 healthy undergraduate students while they read sentences silently. The results revealed that the late negative component (LNC) generated by nouns and verbs was significantly different. The strongest effect was in the 200—300 ms and 400—550 ms time window. In the first window, the negativity generated by verbs was more positive than that by nouns over the centro-frontal electrodes. In the second window, the negativity elicited by verbs was more positive than that by nouns over anterior areas and more negative than that by nouns over posterior areas. The results indicated the neural dissociation of processing Chinese nouns and verbs.     

ERP evidence for neural dissociation of processing Chinese nouns and verbs

To investigate whether there is neural dissociation between processing Chinese nouns and verbs， event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 17 healthy undergraduate students while they read sentences silently. The results revealed that the late negative component (LNC) generated by nouns and verbs was significantly different. The strongest effect was in the 200—300 ms and 400—550 ms time window. In the first window, the negativity generated by verbs was more positive than that by nouns over the centro-frontal electrodes. In the second window, the negativity elicited by verbs was more positive than that by nouns over anterior areas and more negative than that by nouns over posterior areas. The results indicated the neural dissociation of processing Chinese nouns and verbs.     

独塔部分斜拉桥顺桥向地面运动作用下的易损性分析

以墩塔梁固结的独塔预应力混凝土部分斜拉桥为对象,采用动力增量法和数据统计分析研究该类桥梁的地震易损性,确定顺桥向地面运动作用下结构构件的易损部位及损伤破坏概率.采用理论易损性分析方法,选取地面峰值加速度作为地震输入强度指标,并以放大系数为基础选取地震输入;以位移延性比、强度与变形、相对位移、索力为指标分别定义了各构件的损伤状态;根据各构件的损伤概率,拟合建立了各构件及全桥的易损性曲线.结果表明,在顺桥向地面运动作用下,中墩和支座为最易损构件;边墩、主梁均会发生不同程度的损伤;斜拉索、桥塔、桩基安全储备较高.     

A neural representation of depth from motion parallax in macaque visual cortex

Perception of depth is a fundamental challenge for the visual system, particularly for observers moving through their environment. The brain makes use of multiple visual cues to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of a scene. One potent cue, motion parallax, frequently arises during translation of the observer because the images of objects at different distances move across the retina with different velocities. Human psychophysical studies have demonstrated that motion parallax can be a powerful depth cue, and motion parallax seems to be heavily exploited by animal species that lack highly developed binocular vision. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie this capacity. Here we show, by using a virtual-reality system to translate macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta) while they viewed motion parallax displays that simulated objects at different depths, that many neurons in the middle temporal area (area MT) signal the sign of depth (near versus far) from motion parallax in the absence of other depth cues. To achieve this, neurons must combine visual motion with extra-retinal (non-visual) signals related to the animal's movement. Our findings suggest a new neural substrate for depth perception and demonstrate a robust interaction of visual and non-visual cues in area MT. Combined with previous studies that implicate area MT in depth perception based on binocular disparities, our results suggest that area MT contains a more general representation of three-dimensional space that makes use of multiple cues.     

基于神经网络PID的丝杠运动误差控制

针对丝杠传动系统具有非线性及缓时变的特点,使用了BP神经网络PID控制器,该控制策略能在线调整PID控制参数.为了改善常规BP神经网络收敛性慢和系统不稳定的现象,提出了误差函数在线调整学习率的方法,建立了丝杠传动系统被控对象的数学模型,并给出了具体的控制算法.在先进制造过程对象试验平台（AMPOT）上进行了丝杠运动误差补偿试验,试验结果表明,该控制方法可将丝杠的运动误差减小50%～60%.     

一种新的动态矢量Preisach磁滞模型

基于Mayergoyz等的非线性Preisach模型，通过该模型在各个方向上进行矢量迭加，并通过在Preisach分布函数中引入与输出变化速度相关项，导出了一个新的动态矢量Preisach磁滞模型．分别从二维、三维情况下分布函数的有限傅立叶展开式出发，通过引入沿测试方向的弛豫时间，推出了二维、三维情况下新模型中分布函数的数学表达式．新的磁滞模型能较好地描述磁化过程的动态矢量可逆行义及材料的各向异性特性，还可以描述任意阶的微小回线变化规律．     

fMRI evidence for objects as the units of attentional selection.

Contrasting theories of visual attention emphasize selection by spatial location, visual features (such as motion or colour) or whole objects. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test key predictions of the object-based theory, which proposes that pre-attentive mechanisms segment the visual array into discrete objects, groups, or surfaces, which serve as targets for visual attention. Subjects viewed stimuli consisting of a face transparently superimposed on a house, with one moving and the other stationary. In different conditions, subjects attended to the face, the house or the motion. The magnetic resonance signal from each subject's fusiform face area, parahippocampal place area and area MT/MST provided a measure of the processing of faces, houses and visual motion, respectively. Although all three attributes occupied the same location, attending to one attribute of an object (such as the motion of a moving face) enhanced the neural representation not only of that attribute but also of the other attribute of the same object (for example, the face), compared with attributes of the other object (for example, the house). These results cannot be explained by models in which attention selects locations or features, and provide physiological evidence that whole objects are selected even when only one visual attribute is relevant.     

GMA磁滞特性的Persiach模型建模

超磁致伸缩材料具有本征磁滞非线性,用于精密定位时具有较大的回程误差,为控制超磁致伸缩驱动器的输出位移精度,需要建立准确的数学模型来描述其磁滞非线性。本文基于经典的Preisach磁滞模型,通过对Preisach磁滞模型的离散化,建立了超磁致伸缩驱动器的Preisach磁滞数学模型,并进行了超磁致伸缩驱动器输出位移实验研究。实验结果表明：模型计算的结果 和实验结果基本吻合,证明所建模型能够较好的反映出实际情况。