Imaging cortical correlates of illusion in early visual cortex

Dirk Jancke (), Frédéric Chavane, Shmuel Naaman and Amiram Grinvald
Additional contact information
Dirk Jancke: The Weizmann Institute of Science
Frédéric Chavane: The Weizmann Institute of Science
Shmuel Naaman: The Weizmann Institute of Science
Amiram Grinvald: The Weizmann Institute of Science

Nature, 2004, vol. 428, issue 6981, 423-426

Abstract: Abstract Exploring visual illusions reveals fundamental principles of cortical processing. Illusory motion perception of non-moving stimuli was described almost a century ago by Gestalt psychologists1,2. However, the underlying neuronal mechanisms remain unknown. To explore cortical mechanisms underlying the ‘line-motion’ illusion3, we used real-time optical imaging4,5,6, which is highly sensitive to subthreshold activity. We examined, in the visual cortex of the anaesthetized cat, responses to five stimuli: a stationary small square and a long bar; a moving square; a drawn-out bar; and the well-known line-motion illusion3, a stationary square briefly preceding a long stationary bar presentation. Whereas flashing the bar alone evoked the expected localized, short latency and high amplitude activity patterns7,8, presenting a square 60–100 ms before a bar induced the dynamic activity patterns resembling that of fast movement. The preceding square, even though physically non-moving, created gradually propagating subthreshold cortical activity that must contribute to illusory motion, because it was indistinguishable from cortical representations of real motion in this area. These findings demonstrate the effect of spatio-temporal patterns of subthreshold synaptic potentials on cortical processing and the shaping of perception.

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02396 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:428:y:2004:i:6981:d:10.1038_nature02396

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature02396

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().