Central luminance flicker can activate peripheral retinotopic representation.

We aimed to study cortical responses to uniform luminance stimulus in different conditions. We stimulated the central visual field with luminance flicker and reversal of checkerboard pattern contrast and mapped the visual field representation up to 50 degrees of eccentricity. Our results show spreading of cortical BOLD responses when visual stimulus contains mean luminance change in dark surround and no spreading when the stimulus surround has bright illumination. No cortical region was more sensitive to luminance flicker than to pattern reversal during both stimulation setups. We suggest that the spread of luminance responses in retinotopic cortical areas results from intraocular scattering of light. Light scattered inside the eye spreads visual stimulation on the retina, and the contrast of the scattered light is strongest when the surround of the stimulus is dark. The stray light is potential and often neglected source of an artefact in visual experiments, and the responses due to stray light can erroneously be interpreted as indicators for local cortical sensitivity to luminance.