Mobile computation : spatiotemporal integration of the properties of objects in motion

We demonstrate that, as an object moves, color and motion signals from successive, widely spaced locations are integrated, but letter and digit shapes are not. The features that integrate as an object moves match those that integrate when the eyes move but the object is stationary (spatiotopic integration). We suggest that this integration is mediated by large receptive fields gated by attention and that it occurs for surface features (motion and color) that can be summed without precise alignment but not shape features (letters or digits) that require such alignment. Rapidly alternating pairs of colors and motions were presented at several locations around a circle centered at fixation. The same two stimuli…