Sensitivity to biological motion drops by approximately 1/2 log-unit with inversion, and is unaffected by amblyopia

Vision Res. 2007 Apr;47(9):1209-14. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2006.12.016. Epub 2007 Mar 21.

Abstract

The low-level deficits associated with amblyopia have been studied extensively, but very little is known about potential impairments to higher-level visual processing such as object recognition or structure-from-motion. Studies on biological motion, a complex form of structure-from-motion depicting human actions, have demonstrated that normal observers can analyze these patterns more effectively when they are shown in their original upright configuration as opposed to inverted upside-down (feet-up head-down). We measured this inversion effect quantitatively for both the dominant and amblyopic eyes of amblyopic observers. We found a modest ( approximately 30%) loss in sensitivity in the amblyopic eye for both upright and inverted actors, which we attribute to low-level deficits. However, we found no difference in the inversion effect between the two eyes, both showing an average 1/2 log-unit drop in sensitivity between upright and inverted displays. Our data provide a quantitative estimate of the inversion effect for biological motion, and demonstrate that higher-level processing in the motion hierarchy is not affected by amblyopia.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Amblyopia / physiopathology
  • Amblyopia / psychology*
  • Dominance, Ocular
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Motion Perception*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Photic Stimulation / methods
  • Psychophysics
  • Rotation
  • Sensory Thresholds
  • Visual Acuity