Neural correlates of spontaneous direction reversals in ambiguous apparent visual motion

Looking at bistable visual stimuli, the observer experiences striking transitions between two competing percepts while the physical stimulus remains the same. Using functional imaging techniques, it is therefore possible to isolate neural correlates of perceptual changes that are independent of the low-level aspects of the stimulus. Previous experiments have demonstrated distributed activations in human extrastriate visual cortex related to switches between competing percepts. Here we asked where extrastriate responses still occur with a bistable stimulus that minimizes the cognitive difference between the two percepts. We used the "spinning wheel illusion," a bistable apparent motion stimulus of which both possible percepts correspond to the same object, share the same center, and are perceived as identically patterned stimuli moving at the same speed and changing only in direction. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we analyzed the spatial distribution of event-related activations occurring during spontaneous reversals of perceived direction of motion. In accordance with earlier neuroimaging findings for bistable percepts, we observed event-related activations in several frontal and parietal areas, including the superior parietal cortex bilaterally, the right inferior parietal cortex, and the premotor and inferior frontal cortex of both hemispheres. Furthermore, we found bilateral activations in the occipitotemporal junction (hMT+/V5) and in the lateral occipital sulcus ("KO") posterior to hMT+/V5, but not in areas of the "ventral stream" of cortical visual processing. Our data suggest that, while a frontoparietal network subserves more general aspects in bistable visual perception, the activations in functionally specialized extrastriate visual cortex are highly category- or attribute-specific.