The “fluttering heart” and spatio-temporal characteristics of color processing—I Reversibility and the influence of luminance

Abstract The classic phenomenon of the “fluttering heart” was investigated in two experiments. It was demonstrated that the effect consists of a genuine delay and not a phase difference. Its reversibility presents serious problems for two earlier explanations based on the dependence of perceptual latencies on wave-length and the differential latencies of the rod and cone apparatus, respectively. It was further shown that a luminance difference between target and background is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition, but that a color difference is necessary. It was suggested that interactions between the color processing mechanisms across the chromatic border are involved.

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