Motion perception during involuntary eye vibration

Retinal motion caused by reflexive or voluntary eye movements is rarely misinterpreted as object motion, as if the visual system discounted the contribution of these eye movements to retinal motion. Yet, involuntary eye movements caused by mechanical eye vibration is often interpreted as object motion unless the vibration has high frequency, in which case only image blur may be noticed. In these latter conditions, however, a light flickering above the fusion limit is vividly perceived to undergo oscillatory motion over its static surround. We determined the conditions of this phenomenon, showing that the perceived frequency of illusory oscillation equals the difference between flicker frequency and the frequency of vibration of the eyes. This outcome is explained as a result of the low-pass temporal frequency characteristic of vision, which further predicts that the same effect should occur if the flickering light is vibrated and observed with static eyes. This prediction was corroborated empirically. We also determined the minimal amplitude of oscillation required to perceive motion as a function of postural stability and the presence of static references, finding an amplitude threshold of approximately 1 arcmin with postural stability in dim-light conditions, which increases to approximately 2 arcmin with postural instability in the dark.