title: TMS reveals flexible use of form and motion cues in biological motion perception.
abstract: The perception of human movement is a key component of daily social interactions. Although extrastriate area MT+/V5 is closely associated with motion processing, its role in the processing of sparse 'biological motion' displays is still unclear. We developed two closed matched psychophysical tasks to assess simple coherent motion perception and biological motion perception, and measured changes in performance caused by application of TMS over MT+/V5. Performance of the simple motion discrimination task was significantly depressed by TMS stimulation, and highly correlated within observers in TMS conditions, but there was no significant decrement in performance of the biological motion task, despite low intra-observer correlations across TMS conditions. We conclude that extrastriate area MT+/V5 is an obligatory waypoint in the neural processing of simple coherent motion, but is not obligatory for the processing of biological motion. Results are consistent with a dual neural processing route for biological motion processing.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN2 1NB, UK.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mather
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Battaglini
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy; Human Inspired Technology Research Centre, University of Padova, Via Luzzati 4, 35122 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Campana
mesh_terms: D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*