Spatiotemporally coherent motion direction perception occurs even for spatiotemporal reversal of motion sequence

Thus far, it has been pointed out that motion representation is completed in motion trajectory, and that motion representation interferes with a single physical input at a specific time and space in the motion trajectory. However, it has not been fully investigated whether the internal motion representation could interact with multiple physical inputs across time and space in motion trajectory. Thus, the current research investigated whether spatiotemporally coherent motion perception could be established in a situation involving the spatiotemporal reversal of motion sequences. In a five-point motion display, we found that the motion direction perception of the last two stimuli containing the spatiotemporal reversal was consistent with three preceding stimuli. This failure to perceive motion direction reversal occurred when the shapes of motion trajectory (to upper or lower) were randomly changed. Moreover, we confirmed that one preceding stimulus (three-point motion) was sufficient to produce the failure to perceive motion direction reversal, and the effect of the prior stimuli saturated when the preceding sequence contained two or more stimuli. These findings suggest that the flexible internal motion representation mechanisms reorganize the spatiotemporal irregularities in motion trajectory and establish spatiotemporally coherent motion perceptions.