Interocular transfer of expansion, rotation, and translation motion aftereffects

The motion aftereffect demonstrates the existence of direction-selective mechanisms in the visual system. However, direction-selective cells exist within many visual areas, including V1 and MT/V5. Can motion aftereffects be generated within each of these areas? In visual cortical areas beyond V1 almost all cells are binocular, whereas a smaller percentage are binocular in V1. The degree of binocularity can be revealed psychophysically by assessing interocular transfer. Interocular transfer of motion aftereffects generated from expanding rotating, and translating dynamic random-dot patterns were therefore compared, since these stimuli should activate cells in higher visual areas selectively. Partial interocular transfer was found that was greater for expansion and rotation than for translation. The results support the involvement of higher visual areas in motion aftereffects to complex animation sequences.