Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 26, 2026

Applying Incongruent Visual-Tactile Stimuli during Object Transfer with Vibro-Tactile Feedback
Published on: May 23, 2019
The peripheral drift illusion: a motion illusion in the visual periphery
1Ecole d'Optométrie, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada. faubert@ere.umontreal.ca
Abstract:
Circularly repeating patches containing sawtooth luminance gradients produce a sensation of motion when viewed in the periphery. Illusory motion is perceived in a dark-to-light direction, but only when one's gaze is directed to different locations around the stimulus, a point outside the display is fixated and the observer blinks, or when the stimulus is sequentially displayed at different locations whilst the observer fixates one point. We propose that the illusion is produced by the interaction of three factors: (i) introducing transients as a result of eye movements or blinks; (ii) differing latencies in the processing of luminance; and (iii) spatiotemporal integration of the differing luminance signals in the periphery.
Related Concept Videos
Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
Instinctive Drift
Gestalt Principles of Perception
Major Somatic Sensory Pathways
Anatomy of the Eyeball

