Complete interocular transfer of motion aftereffect with flickering test

It has been suggested that motion aftereffect with static test patterns (static MAE) reflects activities at a lower level system that dominantly processes first-order motion, while MAE with a directionally ambiguous test (flicker MAE) reveals a higher level system where second-order motion signals as well as first-order signals are available. To test this hypothesis, we examined interocular transfer of static and flicker MAE. Flicker MAE should transfer more efficiently than static MAE if it occurs at a higher level system. In the first experiment, the adaptation stimulus was a drifting luminance grating (first-order motion), or a drifting grating defined by flicker or texture difference (second-order motion). The test stimulus was a luminance grating, either static or counterphasing. The results indicated that static MAE, which was induced only by first-order motion, transferred partially, as has been reported in previous studies, but the transfer of flicker MAE was nearly perfect with either first- or second-order adaptation stimuli. The second experiment with varied adaptation contrast indicated that this complete transfer was not due to a ceiling effect. These results supported the hypothesis that the underlying mechanism for flicker MAE is located at a level higher than the mechanism for static MAE.