Motion aftereffect in depth based on binocular information

We examined whether a negative motion aftereffect occurs in the depth direction following adaptation to motion in depth based on changing disparity and/or interocular velocity differences. To dissociate these cues, we used three types of adapters: random-element stereograms that were correlated (1) temporally and binocularly, (2) temporally but not binocularly, and (3) binocularly but not temporally. Only the temporally correlated adapters contained coherent interocular velocity differences while only the binocularly correlated adapters contained coherent changing disparity. A motion aftereffect in depth occurred after adaptation to the temporally correlated stereograms while little or no aftereffect occurred following adaptation to the temporally uncorrelated stereograms. Interestingly, a monocular test pattern also showed a comparable motion aftereffect in a diagonal direction in depth after adaptation to the temporally correlated stereograms. The lack of the aftereffect following adaptation to pure changing disparity was also confirmed using spatially separated random-dot patterns. These results are consistent with the existence of a mechanism sensitive to interocular velocity differences, which is adaptable (at least in part) at binocular stages of motion-in-depth processing. We did not find any evidence for the existence of an "adaptable" mechanism specialized to see motion in depth based on changing disparity.