Self-Motion Perception: Multisensory Integration in Extrastriate Visual Cortex

The accurate perception of self-motion is essential for spatial orientation, navigation, and motor planning. Estimating our instantaneous direction of translation, or heading, is a particularly relevant multisensory problem because it requires cross-modal integration even under ordinary conditions. This chapter discusses how heading perception is a useful model for studying the neural basis of multisensory integration for two main reasons. First, there are well-defined brain structures that receive both visual and vestibular signals related to self-motion (e.g., macaque areas MSTd and VIP). Second, the problem is amenable to study using a standard "fine" psychophysical discrimination task, for which there are already well-established behavioral and neurophysiological analysis methods.