Motion perception over long interstimulus intervals

Recent studies using moving arrays of textured micropatterns have suggested that motion perception can be supported by two mechanisms, one quasilinear and sensitive to the motion of luminance-defined local texture, the other nonlinear and coding motion of contrast-defined envelopes of texture (Baker & Hess, 1998; Boulton & Baker, 1993b). Here we used similar patterns to study motion perception under conditions previously shown to isolate the nonlinear mechanism (low micropattern densities and positive interstimulus intervals [ISIs]. We measured direction discrimination for two-flash apparent motion over a much larger range of ISIs, and susceptibility to masking by incoherently moving "distractor" micropatterns. The results suggest that two nonlinear mechanisms can support motion perception under these conditions. One operates only for relatively short ISIs (less than c. 100 msec), is sensitive to small spatial displacements, and is relatively insensitive to distractor masking. The other operates over much longer ISIs, is insensitive to small spatial displacements, and is highly disrupted by distractor masking. These results are in line with previous studies suggesting that three mechanisms support motion perception.