Vision as motivation: Interhemispheric oscillation alters perception

Abstract

The well-recognised proclivity of primates for things visual can sometimes mislead us into thinking that a high order visual process is taking place at a much earlier level of processing than it is. We illustrate this with a new illusion, Bonneh's "motion-induced-blindness", that involves the intermittent disappearance and reappearance of simple bright targets under the influence of a moving background. This perceptual oscillation is strongly affected by the mood and impulsivity of the subject, in line with other evidence that this simple disappearance and reappearance must be taking place at a high level of processing, perhaps at the level of the cerebral hemsipheres themselves.