Grant: Project Grant

Visual motion, occurring during self- and environmental movements, dominates our life. Correspondingly, our visual system has an extraordinary capability of detecting diverse types of visual motion, from the translational motion of a small object to coherent motion of a set of moving dots. This capability allows us to distinguish between self-motion and environmental motion, to maintain posture and balance, and to escape from predators. Abnormalities in visual motion processing can lead to a range of severe pathological symptoms. For example, motion hypersensitivity makes individuals susceptible to motion sickness and suffering from vertigo, dizziness, headaches, imbalance, and nausea. This pathological condition has high prevalence and affects about 1 in 3 people in our society. In addition, disturbances of visual motion processing and perception have also been linked to numerous neurological disorders including schizophrenia, motion blindness, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and so on. Since visual motion processing plays an essential role in supporting visual and other physiological functions, it has been long-standing interest among neuroscientists to understand its neural basis. Our lab has developed a mouse behavioral paradigm to report the motion-induced perceptual effects. In this proposal, we will utilize an interdisciplinary approach, involving single unit recording, optogenetic, viral circuit tracing, and behavioral assays, to understand the neural basis of motion perception. We aim to identify the circuit components that are critical for motion processing and to elucidate the computation behind the effects of motion on our vision. Our work will provide insight into the neural basis of dysfunctional motion processing in neurological disorders, such as motion sickness.