2003 volume 32(11) pages 1325 – 1338
doi:10.1068/p5088

Cite as:
Funk A P, Pettigrew J D, 2003, "Does interhemispheric competition mediate motion-induced blindness? A transcranial magnetic stimulation study" Perception 32(11) 1325 – 1338
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Does interhemispheric competition mediate motion-induced blindness? A transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Agnes P Funk, John D Pettigrew

Received 29 January 2003, in revised form 24 February 2003; published online 11 December 2003

Abstract. Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is a phenomenon, perhaps related to perceptual rivalry, where stationary targets disappear and reappear in a cyclic mode when viewed against a background (mask) of coherent, apparent 3-D motion. Since MIB has recently been shown to share similar temporal properties with binocular rivalry, we probed the appearance - disappearance cycle of MIB using unilateral, single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) -- a manipulation that has previously been shown to influence binocular rivalry. Effects were seen for both hemispheres when the timing of TMS was determined prospectively on the basis of a given subject's appearance - disappearance cycle, so that it occurred on average around 300 ms before the time of perceptual switch. Magnetic stimulation of either hemisphere shortened the time to switch from appearance to disappearance and vice versa. However, TMS of left posterior parietal cortex more selectively shortened the disappearance time of the targets if delivered in phase with the disappearance cycle, but lengthened it if TMS was delivered in the appearance phase after the perceptual switch. Opposite effects were seen in the right hemisphere, although less marked than the left-hemisphere effects. As well as sharing temporal characteristics with binocular rivalry, MIB therefore seems to share a similar underlying mechanism of interhemispheric modulation. Interhemispheric switching may thus provide a common temporal framework for uniting the diverse, multilevel phenomena of perceptual rivalry.

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