Position perception: influence of motion with displacement dissociated from the influence of motion alone

When humans view a moving object, the spatial lag in perception expected from neural delays may be partially corrected by motion mechanisms biasing perceived position. The drifting-Gabor illusion seems to support this view: the perceived location of a static envelope filled with a moving pattern is shifted in the direction of motion. To test whether this shifting mechanism also extrapolates the position of moving displacing objects, we compared the perceptual position shift for drifting versus displacing Gabors when the motion is toward the fovea and when the motion is away from the fovea. For displacing Gabors, the shift was much greater for motion toward the fovea, whereas for drifting Gabors, the shift was greater for motion away from the fovea. This dissociation suggests that the illusions are caused by different mechanisms.