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Abstract
Despite perception being generally perceived as a coherent whole, the underlying physiology is primarily a process of deconstruction followed by reconstruction. Processing a visual image, for instance, requires decomposition into its component parts such as color, depth, and form. These features are then relayed down relatively independent pathways that are then analyzed in discrete cortical regions (e.g., V4 for color) to later be recombined into a meaningful perceptual whole. Global motion processing is no exception. Most descriptive models describe motion processing as a relatively binomial process, one that mediates slow motion and the other that processes fast motion. Although the fast-motion system has been well studied (including its various drivers/covariates), the slow-motion system has been less well characterized. In this study, we designed a system to measure slow-motion thresholds in a sample of young, healthy adults. The results showed substantial variability across individuals (on average ranging by a factor of approximately 38 across participants with similar age, sex, refractive state, etc.). Lutein and zeaxanthin status was not related to the slow-motion system despite being known to drive individual differences in the fast-motion system.