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【bio-news】一只眼睛也可以判断深度？
It's common knowledge that humans and other animals are able to visually judge depth because we have two eyes and the brain compares the images from each. But we can also judge depth with only one eye, and scientists have been searching for how the brain accomplishes that feat.
Now, a team led by a scientist at the University of Rochester believes it has discovered the answer in a small part of the brain that processes both the image from a single eye and also with the motion of our bodies.
The team of researchers, led by Greg DeAngelis, professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester, has published the findings in the March 20 online issue of the journal Nature.
“It looks as though in this area of the brain, the neurons are combining visual cues and non-visual cues to come up with a unique way to determine depth,” says DeAngelis.
DeAngelis says that means the brain uses a whole array of methods to gauge depth. In addition to two-eyed “binocular disparity,” the brain has neurons that specifically measure our motion, perspective, and how objects pass in front of or behind each other to create an approximation of the three-dimensional world in our minds.
The researchers say the findings may help instruct children who were born with misalignment of the eyes to restore more normal functions of binocular vision in the brain. The discovery could also help construct more compelling virtual reality environments someday, says DeAngelis, since we have to know exactly how our brains construct three-dimensional perception to make virtual reality as convincing as possible.
The neural mechanism is based on the fact that objects at different distances move across our vision at different speeds due to a phenomenon called motion parallax, says DeAngelis. When staring at a fixed object, any motion we make will cause things nearer than the object to appear to move in the opposite direction, and more distant things to appear to move in the same direction.
To figure out the real three-dimensional layout of what it sees, DeAngelis says the brain needs one more piece of information and it pulls in this information from the motion of the eyeball itself.
According to DeAngelis, the neurons in the middle temporal area of the brain are combining visual information and physical movement to extract depth information. As the dragon illusion demonstrates, the motion of near and far objects can be confused. But if the eye is moving while tracking the overall movement of the group of objects, it gives the middle temporal neurons enough information to grasp that the object moving fastest in the same direction must be the closest object, and the one moving slowest must be the farthest, says DeAngelis.
“We use binocular disparity, occlusion, perspective, and our own motion all together to create a representation of the real, 3D world in our minds,” says DeAngelis.
Source: University of Rochester 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领 Researchers discover second depth-perception method in brain
研究人员发现脑中存在第二种感知深度的方法
It's common knowledge that humans and other animals are able to visually judge depth because we have two eyes and the brain compares the images from each. But we can also judge depth with only one eye, and scientists have been searching for how the brain accomplishes that feat.
大家都知道人类和某些动物可以通过视觉来判断深度，因为我们有两只眼睛，大脑可以比较来自双眼的图像。但是我们也可以通过一只眼睛来判断深度，科学家们正在寻找大脑是如何完成这项技艺的。
Now, a team led by a scientist at the University of Rochester believes it has discovered the answer in a small part of the brain that processes both the image from a single eye and also with the motion of our bodies.
目前Rochester大学的一名科学家领导的研究小组相信在脑中一小部分区域所发现的答案，该答案认为那部分区域处理来自单眼的图像和随身体运动的图像。
The team of researchers, led by Greg DeAngelis, professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester, has published the findings in the March 20 online issue of the journal Nature.
Rochester 大学脑和认知科学系的Greg DeAngelis教授在《自然》3月20日在线版发表了其研究结果。
“It looks as though in this area of the brain, the neurons are combining visual cues and non-visual cues to come up with a unique way to determine depth,” says DeAngelis.
DeAngelis说：“在脑的这个区域，神经元似乎要联合视觉线索和非视觉线索共同用一种独特的方式来判断深度。”
DeAngelis says that means the brain uses a whole array of methods to gauge depth. In addition to two-eyed “binocular disparity,” the brain has neurons that specifically measure our motion, perspective, and how objects pass in front of or behind each other to create an approximation of the three-dimensional world in our minds.
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-01-26 17:14
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