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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Motion-Acuity Test for Visual Field Acuity Measurement with Motion-Defined Shapes
Published on: February 23, 2024
Physics embedded in visual perception of three-dimensional shape from motion
1Vanderbilt Vision Research Center/Department of Psychology, 301 Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, USA. lee.gilroy@vanderbilt.edu
Abstract:
Visual perception, and by implication underlying neural events, can become unstable when optical information specifying objects is ambiguous. Here we report that one striking form of instability-perceived three-dimensional structure-from-motion (SFM)-can be stabilized when an otherwise ambiguous object appears within a context implying frictional interactions with another rotating object; violations of physical conditions specifying friction disrupt stabilization. Evidently, information about frictional interaction is embedded within neural mechanisms specifying SFM.
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