Workshop 9: Form, spatial and Motion perception

Question 1

Labyrinthitis What is it?

Answer 1

An inner ear infection causes inflammation to the labyrinth. Symptoms include dizziness, nausea, hearing loss and vertigo.

Question 2

Labrynthitis: Treatment / management

Answer 2

Usually, it will subside by itself within a few weeks. A GP may prescribe antihistamines or motion sickness tablets and for long term balance problems vestibular rehabilitation exercises may be advised

Question 3

Tinnitus What is it?

Answer 3

Hearing noise (often ringing) with no external stimuli. Causes of tinnitus are not always clear but it is often linked to hearing loss, infection, Ménière’s disease, medication, an injury, or a problem with the circulatory system.

Question 4

Tinnitus: Treatment / management

Answer 4

Treatment will often depended on what the cause of the tinnitus is. For example, a doctor may be able to reduce symptoms of tinnitus by treating the underlying cardiac condition or infection. For many individuals, tinnitus cannot be cure and the NHS recommends the following methods of management:

	▪ Tinnitus counselling – to help you learn about your tinnitus and find ways of coping with it 
	▪ Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – to change the way you think about your tinnitus and reduce anxiety  ▪ Tinnitus retraining therapy – using sound therapy to retrain your brain to tune out and be less aware of the tinnitus

Question 5

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) What is it?

Answer 5

An inner ear condition, thought be caused by otoconia fragments (calcium carbonate fragments) coming loose from their usual location, in which changes to the position of the head cause sudden bouts of vertigo. Symptoms include dizziness, vertigo, loss of balance, nausea and vomiting.

Question 6

BPPV Treatment/ management

Answer 6

It may subside by itself within a few weeks or months. A specialist may treat BPPV with a series of movements known as the canalith repositioning procedure.

Question 7

Visual Perception

Answer 7

LGN initially processes info, before being sent to the visual cortex.

Question 8

Damage to ES cortex has led to understanding of regional functioning

Answer 8

V1 Striate – V2 Extra Striate (ES) – Ventral stream of ES cortex

= visual agnosia

Question 9

Visual Agnosia

Answer 9

impaired object recognition

Areas identified in inferior temporal and lateral occipital complexes activated by object categories

Question 10

Prosopagnosia

Answer 10

impaired facial recognition (know it’s a face, don’t know who)

Fusi-form face area (FFA) of temporal lobe

Question 11

Perception of Space

Answer 11

Retina info –> striate and extra striate cortex (ECS)

Monocular but also Binocular (one or 2 eyes giving visual info)
- stereopsis from retinal disparity
=Difference in visual info in each eye

Question 12

Perception of space: Dorsal pathway

Answer 12

The “where” pathway, and “how” we need to react

• Disparity sensitive neurons found in the dorsal stream of ESC
• Dorsal stream primarily involved, ending in posterior parietal lobe

Question 13

Ventral pathway

Answer 13

The “What” pathway

Question 14

Role of LGN

Answer 14

Initially processes info from ganglion cells, before its sent to the visual cortex

Question 15

Perception of orientation: which brain region?

Answer 15

Neurons in striate cortex sensitive to orientation

Question 16

Movement perception: Region responsible?

Answer 16

Extra striate cortex

Question 17

Where does the medial temporal region receive info from?

Answer 17

From the superior colliculus

Question 18

What is the Medial Superior Temporal (MST) region responsible for?

Answer 18

Processing of the optic flow across retina (movement direction)

Question 19

Gestalt principles of perception:

Answer 19

• closure
• proximity
• continuation
• similarity
• figure-ground