Illusory motion and vection induced by a printed static image under flickering ambient light at rates up to 100 Hz

Tomoaki Kozaki; Takeharu Seno; Akiyoshi Kitaoka

doi:10.1177/20416695231223444

Illusory motion and vection induced by a printed static image under flickering ambient light at rates up to 100 Hz

Iperception. 2024 Jan 2;15(1):20416695231223444. doi: 10.1177/20416695231223444. eCollection 2024 Jan-Feb.

Authors

Tomoaki Kozaki¹, Takeharu Seno², Akiyoshi Kitaoka³

Affiliations

¹ Fukuoka Women's University, Fukuoka, Japan.
² Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
³ Department of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.

Abstract

Visual motion signals can produce self-motion perception known as vection in observers. Vection can be generated by illusory motions in the form of global expantion in still images as well as by visual motion signals. The perception of vection can be enhanced by flickering images at a rate of 5 Hz. This study examined the illusory motion and vection induced by a printed static image under flickering ambient light at rates up to 100 Hz. The perception of illusory motion and vection were enhanced by flickering ambient lights at 50, 75, and 100 Hz. The enhancement effect was higher for the flicker rates expected to be detectable by humans. The findings of this study suggest that alternating bright and dark signals to the cone receptors and primary visual cortex trigger perceptions of illusory motions.

Keywords: flickering light; illusory motion; light-emitting diode; visual illusion.