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Local mechanisms for the separation of optic flow-field components in the land crab, Cardisoma guanhumi: A role for motion parallax?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2005

AARON P. JOHNSON ,
W. JON. P. BARNES  and
MARTIN W.S. MACAULEY
AARON P. JOHNSON
Affiliation:
Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biomedical & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
W. JON. P. BARNES
Affiliation:
Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biomedical & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
MARTIN W.S. MACAULEY
Affiliation:
Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
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Abstract

Although a number of global mechanisms have been proposed over the years that explain how crabs might separate the rotational and translational components of their optic flow field, there has been no evidence to date that local mechanisms such as motion parallax are used in this separation. We describe here a study that takes advantage of a recently developed suite of computer-generated visual stimuli that creates a three-dimensional world surrounding the crab in which we can simulate translational and rotational optic flow. We show that, while motion parallax is not the only mechanism used in flow-field separation, it does play a role in the recognition of translational optic flow fields in that, under conditions of low overall light intensity and low contrast ratio when crabs find the distinction between rotation and translation harder, smaller eye movements occur in response to translation when motion parallax cues are present than when they are absent. Thus, motion parallax is one of many cues that crabs use to separate rotational and translational optic flow by showing compensatory eye movements to only the former.

Keywords

CrabOptic flowMotion parallaxOptokinetic responsesComputer-generated visual images
Type
Research Article
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 21 , Issue 6 , November 2004 , pp. 905 - 911
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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