Novel method of extracting motion from natural movies

- We propose a new method to extract object motion information from any natural movies.
- The extracted motion information can be visualized as random dot movies.
- Cells in area MT of common marmosets elicited comparable responses to the movies.
- This method innovates studies of integration of the shape and motion information.

BackgroundThe 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 methodWe 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.ResultsAn 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 methodsIn 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.ConclusionsThe 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.