Hoover:
As you requested, here are the compiled responses (and list of
respondents, with my "thank you") to my recent query on motion blindness.
Please share them as you see fit with the CVNet membership. Thanks for your
assistance!
--Randy Glickman
Dep't. Ophthalmology
Univ. Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
San Antonio, TX 78284
(glickman@uthscsa.edu)
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I wish to thank those CVNetters (listed below) who responded to my
query about motion blindness. I have combined, condensed and annotated
the responses I received into the compilation below. Basically, the general
theme of the responses was that motion blindness, aka "akinetopsia" is (as
I suspected) very rare and is usually the result of trauma or other lesions to
the MT area of the cortex.
The following CVNetters contributed the information compiled below:
Curtis Baker (curtis@astra.vision.mcgill.ca)
Bruce Bridgeman (bruceb@cats.ucsc.edu)
Mike Clements (mike@clem.stayfree.co.uk)
Debbie Giaschi (giaschi@ecc.ubc.ca)
Daphne McCulloch (dlmc@gcal.ac.uk)
Peter McLeod (pdmcl@vax.ox.ac.uk)
Eli Peli (eli@vision.eri.harvard.edu)
Fred Previc (fprevic@gw_gateway.brooks.af.mil)
Josee Rivest (jrivest@nexus.yorku.ca)
Elmar Schmeisser (oph001@ukcc.uky.edu)
Ralph Siegel, Ph.D. (axon@cortex.rutgers.edu)
Bill Simpson (wsimpson@io.uwinnipeg.ca)
Lothar Spillmann (spillman@sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de)
Scott Stevenson (SBStevenson@UH.edu)
Vaegan (vaegan@unsw.edu.au)
Fraser Wilson (fraser@nsma.arizona.edu)
Grant Wray (VisRes-Cortical@mailbase.ac.uk)
Jim Zacher (zacher@hpl.ists.ca)
The information contributed fell into two categories: (1)articles or
books dealing with the subject, or (2) people who either volunteered
their own expertise in the area, or who were mentioned by others as
resource people (experts) in the area.
First, the literature:
[Source Articles]
R.H. Hess, C.L. Baker, J. Zihl
The motion blind patient: low-level spatial and temporal filters
J.Neurosci. Vol 9, pp 1628-1640, 1989.
P. McLeod, C. Heywood, J. Driver, J. Zihl
Selective deficit of visual search in moving displays after extrastriate
damage
Nature, Vol 339, pp 466-467, 1989.
J. Zihl, D. von Cramon
Restitution of visual field in patients with damage to the
geniculostriate visual pathway
Human Neurobiol., Vol 1, pp 5-8, 1982
J. Zihl, D. von Cramon
Selective disturbance of movement vision after bilateral brain damage
Brain., V 106, pp 313-340, 1983
Curtis L. Baker, Jr., Robert F. Hess, Josef Zihl
Residual Motion Perception in a "Motion-Blind" Patient, Assessed with
Limited-Lifetime Random Dot Stimuli
J The Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 11, pp 454-461, February 1991
R.M. Siegel, R.A. Andersen
Motion perceptual deficits following ibotenic acid lesions of middle
temporal area (MT) in the behaving rhesus monkey
J Soc.Neurosci.Abstr., Vol 12, pp 1183, 1986.
Andersen, R.A. and Siegel, R.M.
Motion processing in primate cortex, in: Signal and sense: local and
global order in perceptual maps, Eds. Edelman, G., Gall, W. and
Cowan, W.M., Wiley, N.Y. (1988) p. 163-184.
Zeki S.
Cerebral akinetopsia (visual motion blindness). A review.
Brain 1991; 114: 811-824.
Also see work by W Newsome on lesions of MT and superior temporal
sulcus in monkey
L. Vaina
Cerebral Cortex 5:555-572, 1994
See references cited in: Dutton GN. Cognitive visual Dysfunction.
Br. J. Ophthalmol. 1994; 78:723-726, under "Temporal Dysfunctions".
[Textbooks & General Discussions]
Zeki, S.
"A vision of the brain", Oxford ; Boston : Blackwell Scientific
Publications, c1993 (1994 printing) [includes a general
discussion of disturbances of the visual system]
Spillmann, L. & Werner, J.S. (Eds.), Visual Perception - The
Neurophysiological Foundations, Academic Press 1990. [Motion
Blindness discussed on pages 104, 196, 230, 285, 294].
[Several respondents noted that the Zihl & von Cramon 1983 paper in Brain
was the key publication. One respondent described it thus:
"They found a patient with bilateral damage to an area of the human brain
homologous with the monkey brain area MT (AKA V5). This area of brain is
believed to be responsible for motion perception. (From this sort of case
and:
- electrophysiology on monkeys
- ablation studies on monkeys
- functional NMR recordings on awake humans while viewing motion; this
method shows level of brain activity and the MT-homologue "lights up".
See Zeki's fairly recent Scientific American article on this.)
Subsequently other such cases have been found.
This is an exceedingly rare condition. (Far rarer, say, than any form of
colour blindness)
The cause is some sort of trauma in the brain--stroke, etc--that actually
kills the cells responsible for the perception of visual motion.
There is no therapy or treatment really (just as there is none for any
other area of brain that may be affected by stroke). Apparently there is
some recovery after the initial damage"]
An Alternative Hypothesis:
While most theories of motion blindness attributed it to central brain
lesions
or pathology, the possibility was raised by several respondents that a
retinal locus
could be responsible for abnormalities in motion detection motion. This might
be caused by damage to the Y/Magno cell system of the retina as a result, say,
of a congenital condition or to acquired disorders such as glaucoma.
Considering the prevalence of glaucoma, this interesting hypothesis could be
tested.
Second, here are the resource people, who either offered their services or were
recommended by others:
1) Ralph Siegel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
axon@cortex.rutgers.edu
phone: 201-648-1080 x3261
fax: 201-648-1272
Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience
Rutgers, The State University
197 University Avenue
Newark, NJ 07102
"Feel free to contact me. This problem is my field of research. I have
tests etc for motion blind subjects which I would be very happy to
work on with you."
Graduate program information: http://www.bns.rutgers.edu/
For additional information and reprints use Mosaic:
http://www.cmbn.rutgers.edu/cmbn/faculty/rsiegel.html
2)Joseph S. Lappin,Ph.D.
Dep't. of Psychology
Vanderbilt University
111 21st Ave
S. 301 Wilson Hall
Nashville, TN 37240-0009
(Tel) 615-322-2398
(Fax) 615-343-8449
(e-mail) lappinjs@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
3)Dr. David Regan.
"He has conducted research in the area. In fact, one could say that he
was the pioneer in the field. He is located at York University. Dr.
Regan's email address is martin@george.psych.yorku.ca. He is located on
the Human Performance Laboratory's and York Vision Group's Websites:
http://www.yorku.ca/research/vision/
He would be a valuable resource for this area of research".
his address:
Dep't. of Psychology
York University
4700 Keele St.
North York, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada
(Tel) 416-736-5627
(Fax) 416-736-5814
e-mail: martin@george.psych.yorku.ca
4) Dr. Debbie Giaschi
Assistant Professor
Departments of Ophthalmology and Psychology
University of British Columbia
2550 Willow Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V5Z 3N9
voice: (604)875-5529
fax: (604)875-4663
e-mail: giaschi@ecc.ubc.ca
Dr. Giaschi writes:
"Cases of total motion blindness are extremely rare, but deficits on
specific motion tasks may be seen following stroke, carbon monoxide
poisoning, trauma, excision of a brain tumour or in degenerative diseases
such as glaucoma, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease. Damage is
usually in the parietotemporal cortex, which may be homologous to areas MT
and MST in nonhuman primates. Check references by Zihl and Baker, Vaina,
Plant and Nakayama, and Regan and Giaschi for specific cases. I can mail
you copies of the Regan and Giaschi papers if you wish.
Hope this helps."
5) Dr. Goeff Arden
Has apparently described a congenital condition including a type
of motion detecting deficit.
Electrodiagnostic Dept.
Moorfields Eye Hospital
City Road
London EC1V 2PD
England
(Tel) 44-71-253-3411
(Fax) 44-71-566-2465
6) Dr. Curtis Baker
McGill Vision Research
687 Pine Ave.W., H4-14
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1A1
(curtis@astra.vision.mcgill.ca),
Dr. Baker has reported a case of motion blindness (see ref. list
above); indicated his willingness to be a resource person
7) Some Web sites that may have relevant information:
http://www.psych.bangor.ac.uk/deptpsych/BIPsychDepts/BIPsychDepts.html