Radial bias alters high-level motion perception

The visual system involves various orientation and visual field anisotropies, one of which is a preference for radial orientations and motion directions. By radial, we mean those directions coursing symmetrically outward from the fovea into the periphery. This bias stems from anatomical and physiological substrates in the early visual system. We recently reported that this low-level visual anisotropy can alter perceived object orientation. Here, we report that radial bias can also alter another higher-level system, the perceived direction of apparent motion. We presented a bistable apparent motion quartet in the center of the screen while participants fixated on various locations around the quartet. Participants (N = 22) were strongly biased to see the motion direction that was radial with respect to their fixation, controlling for any biases with center fixation. This was observed using a vertical-horizontal quartet as well as an oblique quartet (45° rotated quartet). The latter allowed us to rule out the contribution of the hemisphere effect where motion across the midline is perceived less often. These results extend our earlier findings on perceived object orientation, showing that low-level structural aspects of the visual system alter yet another higher-level visual process, that of apparent motion perception.