Murakami, I. &
Shimojo, S. (1995).
Modulation of motion aftereffect by surround motion and its dependence on eccentricity and stimulus size.
Vision Research, 35, 1835-1844.
As a mechanism to detect differential motion, we have proposed
a model of 'a motion contrast detector' and have shown that it
can explain the perceptual change from motion capture to induced
motion with increasing stimulus size and decreasing
eccentricity. To further test the feasibility of the model, we
examined the effect of surround motion on the motion aftereffect
(MAE) elicited in the center. Using a drifting grating surrounded
by another drifting grating, the duration of MAE in the center
after adaptation was measured for various surround velocities
(Expt 1). MAE was stronger when the surround moved oppositely
to, than together with, the center. This finding was consistent
with some previous reports. Using similar stimuli, MAE was
measured at various stimulus sizes and eccentricities by the
cancellation technique (Expt 2). The effect of surround
modulation turned out to vary with both size and eccentricity. We
examined if the apparent dependence on eccentricity could
reflect a simpler effect of cortical size when the data were
rescaled according to a linear scaling factor. We interpret our
results in terms of motion contrast detectors, possibly located
in the area MT.