A reevaluation of the visual phantom illusion and its impact on the motion aftereffect.

ABSTRACT: The constructive nature of motion perception has been highlighted in studies of the visual phantom illusion. Visual phantoms can occur when two low-contrast collinear drifting gratings are separated by a blank gap, leading to the ghostly impression of drifting stripes that extend through the gap. Although previous work has shown that phantom-inducing gratings can elicit a motion aftereffect (MAE) in the gap region, it is not known whether these MAEs arise from the perception of visual phantoms per se. Here, we evaluated the strength of MAEs elicited by phantom-inducing gratings and well-matched control stimuli. Either the darkest portion of the inducer gratings matched the background luminance to elicit more vivid phantoms or the mean luminance of the inducers matched the background as a c

SUBMITTER: Daumail L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12534567 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature