The effect of local luminance contrast on induced motion

Recently it has been suggested that the magnocellular, as opposed to the parvocellular, subsystem of the primary visual pathway of primates subserves motion perception. This suggestion is partly based on the observation that both the visual responses of magnocellular neural units and certain motion perception phenomena have high contrast sensitivity and are only dependent on luminance contrast for a narrow range of low contrasts. Parvocellular units have low contrast sensitivity and are dependent on contrast for a wide range of values. In the present experiment, the effect of local luminance contrast on induced motion was measured using a nulling procedure to quantify the magnitude, of illusory motion perceived in a centre grating which was viewed against a moving surround grafting. Centre grating contrast was either matched to the surround or maintained at a low (2.5%) or high (60%) value. Surround contrast ranged from 2.5% to 60%. It was found that (1) centre contrast had no observable effect on the magnitude of the illusion, (2) induced motion was marginal or absent with low contrast but detectable surrounds, and (3) induced motion increased as contrast in the surround increased for the range of contrasts tested. This contrast response function is more similar to that of parvocellular than magnocellular units and therefore suggests that the parvocellular stream may play a role in some aspects of motion processing.