Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026
Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane
Published on: August 22, 2025
Unidirectional visual motion adaptation induces reciprocal inhibition of human early visual cortex excitability
Q Arshad1, Y Nigmatullina1, A M Bronstein1
1Academic Department of Neuro-Otology, Imperial College London, Charing Cross Hospital Campus, Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8RF, United Kingdom.
Objectives:
Behavioural observations provided by the waterfall illusion suggest that motion perception is mediated by a comparison of responsiveness of directional selective neurones. These are proposed to be optimally tuned for motion detection in different directions. Critically however, despite the behavioural observations, direct evidence of this relationship at a cortical level in humans is lacking. By utilising the state dependant properties of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), one can probe the excitability of specific neuronal populations using the perceptual phenomenon of phosphenes.
Method:
We exposed subjects to unidirectional visual motion adaptation and subsequently simultaneously measured early visual cortex (V1) excitability whilst viewing motion in the adapted and non-adapted direction.
Result:
Following adaptation, the probability of perceiving a phosphene whilst viewing motion in the adapted direction was diminished reflecting a reduction in V1 excitability. Conversely, V1 excitability was enhanced whilst viewing motion in the opposite direction to that used for adaptation.
Conclusion:
Our results provide support that in humans a process of reciprocal inhibition between oppositely tuned directionally selective neurones in V1 facilitates motion perception.
Significance:
This paradigm affords a unique opportunity to investigate changes in cortical excitability following peripheral vestibular disorders.
