Motion spatially facilitates the detection of static objects A Pires1, A Maiche2 |
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1Department of Basic Psychology and Education, University Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain |
| There is strong evidence that motion elicits a fast spreading neural activity with a short neural latency [Paradis et al, 2012, Front. Hum. Neurosci. 6:330]. Motion (facilitated) signals are sent to the neighboring neurons with the receptive fields co-aligned in the visual space, producing a facilitation effect for the future locations that are likely to be activated in the near future by the moving object. Neural facilitation also depends on the contrast and distance of the object. In our experiment, we addressed spatial facilitation provoked by co-aligned or misaligned moving Gabor patches. The Gabor moved in the direction of one of two static flashes and the onset of that (facilitated) flash was varied according to the constant stimuli method. We found an illusory motion effect between two static flashed stimuli. The facilitated flash was perceived earlier when appeared ahead of the co-aligned moving Gabor patch. Stimuli located ahead of collinear motion were consistently detected faster, and for this reason, an illusory motion from one static flash to the other was observed even when presented simultaneously. Our psychophysical findings can be explained as the result of a neural facilitation provoked by motion. |
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