Abstract
Structure-from-motion stimuli may contain no cues to suggest a particular direction of rotation, yet they consistently induce an unambiguous percept. As part of the first whole-genome association study of normal perception — the 'PERGENIC' project — we have found reliable individual differences in directional biases for such stimuli, and have been able to establish genetic associates of these individual differences. 1060 young adult participants, with normal vision, reported the perceived direction of rotation of structure-from-motion cylinders presented briefly to the left or the right of fixation. Participants showed reliable individual differences not only in the direction and magnitude of bias, but also in the consistency of bias between hemifield of presentation. DNA was extracted from saliva samples, and was genotyped at 700,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers distributed throughout the human genome. Across five derivative measures of bias, we found significant associations (P < 5 x 10?7) between perceptual measures and 67 SNPs. These markers fell in a smaller number of independent association regions, each including both genes and non-coding regulatory elements. Gene ontology analysis revealed several functional categories of gene that were over-represented in the set of associations. One interesting association is with a gene that has been clinically implicated in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.
Meeting abstract presented at OSA Fall Vision 2012