P and M channel-specific interference in the what and where pathway

IT was the purpose of this experiment to study interference effects of colo ur or luminance peripheral flicker (in order to saturate either the parvoce llular or the magnocellular stream) on object identity and spatial location memory. Colour flicker interfered with object identity recognition, wherea s luminance flicker affected memory for spatial location. Moreover, overall performance was worse if coloured rather than grey-scaled objects were use d in the stimulus display. There was no selective effect of coloured flicke r affecting coloured objects and chromatic flicker affecting chromatic obje cts. These results provide strong evidence for the theoretical position tha t the what pathway relies heavily on information derived from the P stream and the where pathway on the M stream. (C) 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilki ns.