Visual figure-ground segregation is achieved by exploiting differences in f
eatures such as luminance, colour, motion or presentation time between a fi
gure and its surround. Here we determine the shortest delay times required
for figure-ground segregation based on purely temporal features. Previous s
tudies usually employed stimulus onset asynchronies between figure- and gro
und-containing possible artefacts based on apparent motion cues or on lumin
ance differences. Our stimuli systematically avoid these artefacts by const
antly showing 20 x 20 'colons' that flip by 90 degrees around their midpoin
ts at constant time intervals. Colons constituting the background flip in-p
hase whereas those constituting the target flip with a phase delay. We test
ed the impact of frequency modulation and phase reduction on target detecti
on. Younger subjects performed well above chance even at temporal delays as
short as 13 ms, whilst older subjects required up to three times longer de
lays in some conditions. Figure-ground segregation can rely on purely tempo
ral delays down to around 10 ms even in the absence of luminance and motion
artefacts, indicating a temporal precision of cortical information process
ing almost an order of magnitude lower than the one required for some model
s of feature binding in the visual cortex [e.g. Singer, W. (1999), Curr. Op
in. Neurobiol., 9, 189-194]. Hence, in our experiment, observers are unable
to use temporal stimulus features with the precision required for these mo
dels.