Detection of motion onset and offset: reaction time and visual evoked potential analysis

Abstract

Manual reaction time (RT) and visual evoked potentials (VEP) were measured in motion onset and offset detection tasks. A considerable homology was observed between the temporal structure of RTs and VEP intervals, provided that the change in motion was detected as soon as the VEP signal has reached critical threshold amplitude. Both manual reactions and VEP rise in latency as the velocity of the onset or offset motion decreases and were well approximated by the same negative power function with the exponent close to -2/3. This indicates that motion processing is normalised by subtracting the initial motion vector from ongoing motion. A comparison of the motion onset VEP signals in two different conditions, in one of which the observer was instructed to abstain from the reaction and in the other to indicate as fast as possible the beginning of the motion, contained accurate information about the manual response.

Delineating the Neural Signatures of Tracking Spatial Position and Working Memory during Attentive Tracking

“…We therefore tentatively conclude that the process of monitoring target positions turns off with a latency of ~350 ms. Kreegipuu and Allik (2007) recently estimated that it takes 200 ms for the visual system to register the onset or offset of motion. Thus, our data suggest that it takes an additional 150 ms to register that it is no longer necessary to monitor target position information.…”

Effects of velocity and motion-onset delay on detection and discrimination of sound motion

“…The obvious correlation of behavioral performance and cortical responses provides support for the notion that the MM latency reflects the time consumed by the encoding of auditory motion information, thus providing a neurophysiological marker of motion detection. To further test the relationship between brain activity and perceptual performance, combined measurements of manual RTs and auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) may be useful, as they were conducted in the visual modality (e.g., Kawakami et al, 2002;Kreegipuu and Allik, 2007). In particular, detailed analyzes of the time course of RTs and AEPs at various velocities could further clarify the role of motion-specific cortical responses.…”

“…In visual perception, the dependence of motion detection on velocity is well documented (e.g., Ball and Sekuler, 1980;Tynan and Sekuler, 1982): a relationship between brain activity and behavioral performance in motion detection has recently been established by demonstrating that the response time (RT) is correlated with the latency of visual evoked potentials to motion onset (Kreegipuu and Allik, 2007). In auditory perception, Engelken et al (1991) investigated the detection of a rapid change in sound position.…”

A primer on motion visual evoked potentials

“…Generally, motion-offset potentials seem to have a negative deflection, but are smaller and less uniform than onset potentials [15,39]. Their latency seems longer, at least when measured at Cz for slow speeds [66]. Dominant positive peaks have also been reported [67].…”