Complete interocular transfer of motion aftereffect with flickering test.
It has been suggested that motion aftereffect with static test patterns (static MAE) reflects activities at a lower level system that dominantly processes first-order motion, while MAE with a directionally ambiguous test (flicker MAE) reveals a higher level system where second-order motion signals as well as first-order signals are available. To test this hypothesis, we examined interocular transfer of static and flicker MAE. Flicker MAE should transfer more efficiently than static MAE if it occurs at a higher level system. In the first experiment, the adaptation stimulus was a drifting luminance grating (first-order motion), or a drifting grating defined by flicker or texture difference (second-order motion). The test stimulus was a luminance grating, either static or counterphasing. The results indicated that static MAE, which was induced only by first-order motion, transferred partially, as has been reported in previous studies, but the transfer of flicker MAE was nearly perfect with either first- or second-order adaptation stimuli. The second experiment with varied adaptation contrast indicated that this complete transfer was not due to a ceiling effect. These results supported the hypothesis that the underlying mechanism for flicker MAE is located at a level higher than the mechanism for static MAE.
Information Science Research Laboratory, NTT Basic Research Laboratories, Kanagawa, Japan.
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Nishida
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Ashida
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Sato
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000360:Afterimage / Q000502:physiology*; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009903:Optical Illusions / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D015349:Vision, Monocular / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology