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Perception of shape-from-motion in macaque monkeys and humans

Primates volume 44, pages 177–182 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Motion is one of the most efficient cues for shape perception. We conducted behavioral experiments to examine how monkeys perceive shapes defined by motion cues and whether they perceive them as humans do. We trained monkeys to perform a shape discrimination task in which shapes were defined by the motion of random dots. Effects of dot density and dot speed on the shape perception of monkeys were examined. Human subjects were also tested using the same paradigm and the test results were compared with those of monkeys. In both monkeys and humans, correct performance rates declined when density or speed of random dots was reduced. Both of them tended to confuse the same combinations of shapes frequently. These results suggest that monkeys and humans perceive shapes defined by motion cues in a similar manner and probably have common neural mechanisms to perceive them.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research (no. 10CE2005). All experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Committee of the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University and were in accordance with "Guide for the Care and Use of the Laboratory Primates" (1986, 1996, 2001) of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University and "Guidelines for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" (1985) of the National Institute of Health.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan

    Shumpei Unno, Reiko Kuno, Masato Inoue & Akichika Mikami

  2. Department of Psychology, Rikkyo University, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-8501, Japan

    Yasuo Nagasaka

Authors
  1. Shumpei Unno
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  2. Reiko Kuno
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  3. Masato Inoue
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  4. Yasuo Nagasaka
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  5. Akichika Mikami
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Correspondence to Akichika Mikami.

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Unno, S., Kuno, R., Inoue, M. et al. Perception of shape-from-motion in macaque monkeys and humans. Primates 44, 177–182 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-002-0023-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-002-0023-7

Keywords

  • Shape perception
  • Visual motion
  • Dot speed
  • Dot density