Faculty Collaboration Database

Global motion mechanisms compensate local motion deficits in a patient with a bilateral occipital lobe lesion. Exp Brain Res 2006 Sep;173(4):724-32

Date

05/05/2006

Pubmed ID

16673065

DOI

10.1007/s00221-006-0447-1

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-33747878197 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   4 Citations

Abstract

Successive stages of cortical processing encode increasingly more complex types of information. In the visual motion system this increasing complexity, complemented by an increase in spatial summation, has proven effective in characterizing the mechanisms mediating visual perception. Here we report psychophysical results from a motion-impaired stroke patient, WB, whose pattern of deficits over time reveals a systematic shift in spatial scale for processing speed. We show that following loss in sensitivity to low-level motion direction WB's representation of speed shifts to larger spatial scales, consistent with recruitment of intact high-level mechanisms. With the recovery of low-level motion processing WB's representation of speed shifts back to small spatial scales. These results support the recruitment of high-level visual mechanisms in cases where lower-level function is impaired and suggest that, as an experimental paradigm, spatial summation may provide an important avenue for investigating functional recovery in patients following damage to visually responsive cortex.

Author List

Beardsley SA, Vaina LM

Author

Scott Beardsley PhD Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering department at Marquette University

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Brain Mapping
Cerebral Infarction
Fixation, Ocular
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Motor Activity
Movement Disorders
Occipital Lobe
Photic Stimulation
Psychomotor Performance
Reaction Time
Space Perception