Contextual modulation in the V1 real motion cells

Retinal images move when the eyes move across a stationary object, or alternatively, when the object moves while the eyes are stationary. Orientation selective cells in V1 showed preference for these two types of retinal image slip. Furthermore, if an orientation cell preferred moving objects, the response to an element of a complex image was modulated by background stimuli placed outside the cell's receptive field. However, the response of cells, that showed no preference for a moving object, was hardly affected by the background. These results indicate that figure and ground are already segregated in the very early stage of visual processing.