Rapid colour-specific detection of motion in human vision

THE human visual system is much better at analysing the motion of luminance (black and white) patterns than it is at analysing the motion of colour patterns(1-4), especially if the pattern is presented very briefly(5) or moves rapidly(6). We report here that observers reliably distinguish the direction of motion of a colour pattern presented for only 17 milliseconds, provided that the contrast is several times the threshold value (the contrast needed to detect the presence of the pattern). A control experiment, in which a static luminance 'mask' is added to the moving colour pattern, proves that discrimination of the direction of motion of these brief stimuli is colour-specific. The mask drastically impairs discrimination of the direction of motion of a luminance pattern, but it has little effect on a colour pattern. We conclude that the human visual system contains colour-specific motion-detection mechanisms that are capable of analysing very brief signals.