We investigated responses of neurones in cortical areas 17 and 18 and in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the cat to a phase shift in a moving line pattern forming a border without a luminance gradient ("subjective contour"). In both areas 17 and 18, S cells and B cells respond only slightly or not at all along the phase shift while C cells respond strongly. The response of C cells is strongest for line patterns with medium line separation and decreases with smaller and larger separation. In the dLGN the relative magnitude of neuronal responses along a phase shift is similar to that of C cells. However, C cells respond uniformly along the entire phase shift, whereas geniculate cells merely respond to individual line ends along the phase shift. In addition we compared responses along a phase shift and those to a luminance gradient formed by a dotted line whose dots were separated by the same distance as the line ends along the phase shift. S cells and B cells respond preferentially to dotted lines whereas C cells and geniculate cells respond equally well along both phase shifts and dotted lines. Possible explanations for these results in terms of receptive field structure and differences in inhibitory input to the cells are discussed. Differential neurone responses may account for the perceptual distinctness of the contours with and without luminance gradients.