Adaptation state of the local-motion-pooling units determines the nature of the motion aftereffect to transparent motion

Population receptive field estimates for motion-defined stimuli

The processing of motion changes throughout the visual hierarchy, from spatially restricted ‘local motion’ in early visual cortex to more complex large-field ‘global motion’ at later stages. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine spatially selective responses in these areas related to the processing of random-dot stimuli defined by differences in motion. We used population receptive field (pRF) analyses to map retinotopic cortex using bar stimuli comprising coherently moving dots. In the first experiment, we used three separate background conditions: no background dots (dot-defined bar-only), dots moving coherently in the opposite direction to the bar (kinetic boundary) and dots moving incoherently in random directions (global motion). Clear retinotopic maps were obtained for the bar-only and kinetic-boundary conditions across visual areas V1–V3 and in higher dorsal areas. For the global-motion condition, retinotopic maps were much weaker in early areas and became clear only in higher areas, consistent with the emergence of global-motion processing throughout the visual hierarchy. However, in a second experiment we demonstrate that this pattern is not specific to motion-defined stimuli, with very similar results for a transparent-motion stimulus and a bar defined by a static low-level property (dot size) that should have driven responses particularly in V1. We further exclude explanations based on stimulus visibility by demonstrating that the observed differences in pRF properties do not follow the ability of observers to localise or attend to these bar elements. Rather, our findings indicate that dorsal extrastriate retinotopic maps may primarily be determined by the visibility of the neural responses to the bar relative to the background response (i.e. neural signal-to-noise ratios) and suggests that claims about stimulus selectivity from pRF experiments must be interpreted with caution.

The role of perceived speed in vection: does perceived speed modulate the jitter and oscillation advantages?

Illusory self-motion (‘vection’) in depth is strongly enhanced when horizontal/vertical simulated viewpoint oscillation is added to optic flow inducing displays; a similar effect is found for simulated viewpoint jitter. The underlying cause of these oscillation and jitter advantages for vection is still unknown. Here we investigate the possibility that perceived speed of motion in depth (MID) plays a role. First, in a 2AFC procedure, we obtained MID speed PSEs for briefly presented (vertically oscillating and smooth) radial flow displays. Then we examined the strength, duration and onset latency of vection induced by oscillating and smooth radial flow displays matched either for simulated or perceived MID speed. The oscillation advantage was eliminated when displays were matched for perceived MID speed. However, when we tested the jitter advantage in the same manner, jittering displays were found to produce greater vection in depth than speed-matched controls. In summary, jitter and oscillation advantages were the same across experiments, but slower MID speed was required to match jittering than oscillating stimuli. Thus, to the extent that vection is driven by perceived speed of MID, this effect is greater for oscillating than for jittering stimuli, which suggests that the two effects may arise from separate mechanisms.