Adaptation to a spatial offset occurs independently of the flash-drag effect

Visual motion can influence the perceived position of an object. For example, in the flash-drag effect, the position of a stationary flashed object at one location appears to shift in the direction of motion presented at another location in the visual field (Whitney & Cavanagh, 2000). The results of previous physiological studies suggest interactions between motion and position information in very early retinotopic areas. However, it is unclear whether the position information that has been distorted by motion further influences the visual processing stage at which adaptable position mechanisms may exist. To examine this, we presented two Gabor patches, each of which was adjacent to oppositely moving inducers, and investigated whether adaptation to the illusory spatial offset caused by the flash-drag effect induced the position aftereffect. Our results show that a change in the perceived offset in the presence of the flash-drag effect did not influence the position aftereffect. These results indicate that internal representations of positions altered by the presence of nearby motion signals do not feed into the mechanism underlying the position aftereffect.