A neural code for looming and receding motion is distributed over a population of electrosensory ON and OFF contrast cells.

Object saliency is based on the relative local-to-background contrast in the physical signals that underlie perceptual experience. As such, contrast-detecting neurons (ON/OFF cells) are found in many sensory systems, responding respectively to increased or decreased intensity within their receptive field centers. This differential sensitivity suggests that ON and OFF cells initiate segregated streams of information for positive and negative sensory contrast. However, while recording in vivo from the ON and OFF cells of Apteronotus leptorhynchus, we report that the reversal of stimulus motion triggers paradoxical responses to electrosensory contrast. By considering the instantaneous firing rates of both ON and OFF cell populations, a bidirectionally symmetric representation of motion is achieved for both positive and negative contrast stimuli. Whereas the firing rates of the individual contrast detecting neurons convey scalar information, such as object distance, it is their sequential activation over longer timescales that track changes in the direction of movement.