HUMAN BRAIN POTENTIALS OBSERVED USING THE LINE-MOTION METHOD - THE NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF VISUAL ILLUSORY MOTION PERCEPTION

This study shows the temporal dynamics of neurophysiological activitie s in illusory motion perception. Event-related brain potentials were r ecorded from 12 healthy subjects while they performed a two-alternativ e (motion/no motion), forced-choice task using the line motion method. Amplitudes of a late positive component at Fz, Cz, Pz, O1 and O2 incr eased as cue lead time (CLT) increased. At a CLT of 50 ms, the amplitu des of the late positive component (the peak latency at O1, O2: 310 ms ; Fz, Ct, Pz: 360-390 ms) observed during illusory motion perception w as larger than that observed during no motion perception, even though the physical stimuli were the same. These results suggest that the per ception of illusory motion correlates to a relatively late stage of vi sual information processing. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.