Sounds like a bug. I would report it using the "Contact Support" button here:
Potential workaround is to try setting the CData property
figure
Position = [0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2]
hdl = uicontrol('Units', 'Normalized', 'Position', Position, ...
'Style', 'PushButton')
set(hdl,'CData',cat(3,zeros(500),ones(500),zeros(500)))
Hope this helps!