Shape specificity of neural persistence for the kinetic-depth effect matches perceptual adaptation but not sensory memory

When multistable displays—stimuli that are compatible with several comparably likely perceptual interpretations—are presented intermittently, the perceptual state at the stimulus onset shows a complex dependence on the duration of the preceding blank interval. Specifically, perception is maximally destabilized for interruptions that are approximately 500 ms long, but it is stabilized by the use of shorter or longer blank intervals. This nonmonotonic dependence of perceptual stability on the blank interval duration raises questions about a number of history effects that are involved and about their nature, including the underlying neural representations. One way to characterize history effects is by looking at their specificity to the change of display properties. Here we measured the shape specificity for perception of the kinetic-depth effect when interruptions were brief (50 ms). For this time interval, perception is thought to be stabilized by neural persistence, a lingering trace of the prior neural activity. We found that perceptual stability depended on the shapes of the objects presented both before and after the break, but not on the similarity between the objects. These results matched earlier reports of the shape specificity of neural adaptation (destabilizing aftereffect for blanks 200–800 ms long). However, our results were markedly different from the shape specificity of sensory memory of multistable perception (a stabilizing effect for blanks > 800–1,000 ms). We concluded that whereas neural persistence and adaptation both act on the same motion-selective neural representation, sensory memory depends on another, possibly partially overlapping, shape-selective neural ensemble.