• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2005

After prolonged viewing of a moving pattern, a stationary pattern can appear to move in the opposite direction, a phenomenon known as motion aftereffect (MAE). Unlike the classical explanation MAE was not confined to an adapted region; instead it can spread to an adjacent region, which was not adapted previously. In order to examine the relative locus of the mechanism responsible for MAE spreading, a rotating harmonic spiral pattern was presented as an adapting stimulus within an annulus window, and then the duration of MAE was measured in both the adapted annulus region and the non-adapted inner region. Two different kinds of test patterns were used: the same and mirror images of the original adapting pattern. An interesting characteristic of a harmonic spiral is that the orientation of a contour at a given location is different from thar of its mirror image by 90 degrees, and consequently the adapting effect of local motion detector is not expected to occur in the mirror image. The results showed that MAE duration in an adapted region was longer in the same image condition than in its mirror image condition, while MAE duration in an non-adapted region was not found to be different between those two different image conditions. These results suggest that MAE spreading might be produced by the adaptation of global motion detectors, not by local motion detectors.