Spatial integration by MT pattern neurons: a closer look at pattern-to-component effects and the role of speed tuning

The primate visual system faces a difficult problem whenever it encounters the motion of an object moving over a patch of the retina. Objects typically contain a number of edges at different orientations and so a range of image velocities are generated within the receptive field of a neuron processing the object movement. It is still a mystery as to how these different velocities are combined into one unified and correct velocity. Neurons in area MT (V5) are considered to be the neural substrate for this motion integration process. Some MT neurons (pattern type) respond selectively to the correct global motion of an object, whereas others respond primarily to the individual components making up the pattern (component type). Recent findings from MT pattern cells tested with small patches of motion (N. J. Majaj, M. Carandini, & J. A. Movshon, 2007) have put further constraints on the possible mechanisms underlying MT pattern motion integration. We tested and refined an existing model of MT pattern neurons (J. A. Perrone, 2004) using these same small patch stimuli and found that it can accommodate these new findings. We also discovered that the speed of the test stimuli may have had an impact on the N. J. Majaj et al. (2007) results and that MT direction and speed tuning may be more closely linked than previously thought.