Afterimage of perceptually filled-in surface.
An afterimage induced by prior adaptation to a visual stimulus is believed to be due to bleaching of photochemical pigments or neural adaptation in the retina. We report a type of afterimage that appears to require cortical adaptation. Fixating a neon-color spreading configuration led not only to negative afterimages corresponding to the inducers (local afterimages), but also to one corresponding to the perceptually filled-in surface during adaptation (global afterimage). These afterimages were mutually exclusive, undergoing monocular rivalry. The strength of the global afterimage correlated to a greater extent with perceptual filling-in during adaptation than with the strength of the local afterimages. Thus, global afterimages are not merely by-products of local afterimages, but involve adaptation at a cortical representation of surface.
Shimojo
S
S
California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology, Computation and Neural Systems, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA. sshimojo@its.caltech.edu
Kamitani
Y
Y
Nishida
S
S
D000221:Adaptation, Ocular; D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000360:Afterimage; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*