Reduction of a pattern-induced motion aftereffect by binocular rivalry suggests the involvement of extrastriate mechanisms.

Previous research suggests that plaid-induced motion aftereffects (MAEs) involve extrastriate mechanisms (Wenderoth et al., 1988). There is evidence also that binocular rivalry occurs beyond V1 and that it disrupts the processing of MAEs which are believed to be based upon extrastriate mechanisms (e.g. the spiral MAE) but not MAEs, such as linear MAE induced by a drifting grating, which are thought to arise in striate cortex (Wiesenfelder & Blake, 1990). The logical inference is that binocular rivalry during drifting plaid-induced adaptation should reduce the MAEs which result. We report experiments which confirm this prediction.