Failure of colour and contrast polarity identification at threshold for detection of motion and global form

Color-motion feature-binding errors are mediated by a higher-order chromatic representation

Peripheral and central moving objects of the same color may be perceived to move in the same direction even though peripheral objects have a different true direction of motion [Nature429, 262 (2004)10.1038/429262a]. The perceived, illusory direction of peripheral motion is a color-motion feature-binding error. Recent work shows that such binding errors occur even without an exact color match between central and peripheral objects, and, moreover, the frequency of the binding errors in the periphery declines as the chromatic difference increases between the central and peripheral objects [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A31, A60 (2014)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.31.000A60]. This change in the frequency of binding errors with the chromatic difference raises the general question of the chromatic representation from which the difference is determined. Here, basic properties of the chromatic representation are tested to discover whether it depends on independent chromatic differences on the l and the s cardinal axes or, alternatively, on a more specific higher-order chromatic representation. Experimental tests compared the rate of feature-binding errors when the central and peripheral colors had the identical s chromaticity (so zero difference in s) and a fixed magnitude of l difference, while varying the identical s level in center and periphery (thus always keeping the s difference at zero). A chromatic representation based on independent l and s differences would result in the same frequency of color-motion binding errors at everyslevel. The results are contrary to this prediction, thus showing that the chromatic representation at the level of color-motion feature binding depends on a higher-order chromatic mechanism.

Motion-defined surface segregation in human visual cortex

Surface segregation provides an efficient way to parse the visual scene for perceptual analysis. Here, we investigated the segregation of a bivectorial motion display into transparent surfaces through a psychophysical task and fMRI. We found that perceptual transparency correlated with neural activity in the early areas of the visual cortex, suggesting these areas may be involved in the segregation of motion-defined surfaces. Two oppositely rotating, uniquely colored random dot kinematograms (RDKs) were presented either sequentially or in a spatially interleaved manner, displayed at varying alternation frequencies. Participants reported the color and rotation direction pairing of the RDKs in the psychophysical task. The spatially interleaved display generated the percept of motion transparency across the range of frequencies tested, yielding ceiling task performance. At high alternation frequencies, performance on the sequential display also approached ceiling, indicative of perceived transparency. However, transparency broke down in lower alternation frequency sequential displays, producing performance close to chance. A corresponding pattern mirroring the psychophysical data was also evident in univariate and multivariate analyses of the fMRI BOLD activity in visual cortical areas V1, V2, V3, V3AB, hV4, and V5/MT+. Using gray RDKs, we found significant presentation by frequency interactions in most areas; differences in BOLD signal between presentation types were significant only at the lower alternation frequency. Multivariate pattern classification was similarly unable to discriminate between presentation types at the higher frequency. This study provides evidence that early visual cortex may code for motion-defined surface segregation, which in turn may enable perceptual transparency.