Study Reveals How the Brain Processes Color and Motion

In a recent study conducted by the University of Chicago, scientists have identified a brain region that appears central to perceiving the combination of color and motion. They discovered a unique population of neurons that shift in sensitivity toward different colors and directions depending on what is being attended — the red jersey of a football player headed toward an end zone, for example. The study sheds light on a fundamental neurological process that is a key step in the biology of attention. “Most of the objects in any given visual scene are not that important, so how does the brain select or attend to important ones?” said that study’s senior author. “We’ve zeroed in on an area of the brain that appears central to this process. It does this in a very flexible way, changing moment by moment depending on what is being looked for.” To investigate this process, the research team studied the response of individual neurons during a simple task, viewing a rapid series of images with different colors and dots moving in different directions. To read more about this study, click here.