Second order components of moving plaids activate extrastriate cortex: a positron emission tomography study.

A moving plaid is a composite pattern produced by superimposing two sinusoidal gratings which differ in orientation and motion direction. The perceived drift direction of a plaid appears to be determined partly by a binocular mechanism, which follows intersection of constraint rules (Burke and Wenderoth, 1993b), and partly by a monocular mechanism, which tracks the dark and bright intersects of the plaid, the contrast envelopes. The first neurones that respond to plaids as patterns rather than component gratings are found in area V5, also known as MT, which is exclusively binocular. Therefore, the psychophysical evidence suggesting that the contrast envelope tracking mechanism is monocular is surprising but has been obtained consistently. We aimed to localize the contrast envelope tracking mechanism by undertaking a positron emission tomography (PET) activation experiment in which the subjects were presented with alternating plaid components during the control scan and with the moving plaid resulting from the superposition of these components as the activation scan. The results showed differential activation in area V3. Recent results from macaque single cell recordings have also demonstrated increased sensitivity to moving plaid stimuli compared to the plaid component gratings in V3 neurones. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.