Vection can be induced without global-motion awareness

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Perception

Background:

• Vection, the illusory sensation of self-motion, is typically induced by visual stimuli depicting motion.
• The underlying mechanisms of vection involve complex sensory integration processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate a novel vection illusion.
• To explore vection induction without consciously perceived global display motion.

Main Methods:

• A new experimental paradigm was developed to induce vection.
• Participants reported their subjective experience of self-motion.

Main Results:

• Vection was successfully induced in the absence of consciously perceived global visual motion.
• Participants described feeling self-motion without understanding its cause.

Conclusions:

• This finding suggests that vection can arise from non-conscious visual motion processing.
• The results challenge existing theories that rely on conscious perception of visual motion for vection induction.