Abstract: Using optic flow signal to guide one’s effective movement through outside environment is one of the most important tasks of our visual system. In primate cerebral cortex, the processing of visual motion is attributed to a series of areas in the dorsal pathway, which is believed to be specialized in the analysis of motion and spatial actions. In high-order areas, it’s very likely that the visual system integrates visual and non-visual cues to compensate the distortion caused by eye movement, thus reconstructs the precise self-motion direction. Based on current research progress, two parietal areas, MST and VIP are involved in self-motion perception, and they are both necessary for precise heading direction estimation. This review systematically went through the most recent progress in the research field of neural mechanism of self-motion perception, especially focused on works done by neurophysiologist using non-human primate animal model. In the end, we also point out some important questions, which we think has to be answered in the near future investigation.

Key words: visual motion, optic flow, self-motion, eye movement compensation, multi-sensory integration