No Evidence That Resting-State Individual Alpha Frequency Represents a Mechanism Underlying Motion-Position Illusions

Motion-position illusions (MPIs) involve the position of an object being misperceived in the context of motion (i.e., when the object contains motion, is surrounded by motion or is moving). A popular MPI is the flash-lag effect, where a static object briefly presented in spatiotemporal alignment with a moving object is perceived in a position behind the moving object. Recently, prior research has documented that there are stable individual differences in the magnitude of these illusions and possibly even their direction. To investigate the possible neural correlates of these individual differences, the present study explored whether a trait-like component of brain activity, individual alpha frequency (IAF), could predict individual illusion magnitude. Previous reports have found some correlations between IAF and perceptual tasks. Participants (N = 61) viewed the flash-lag effect (motion and luminance), Fröhlich effect, flash-drag effect, flash-grab effect, motion-induced position shift, twinkle-goes effect and the flash-jump effect. In a separate session, 5 min of eyes-closed resting state EEG data was recorded. Correlation analyses revealed no evidence for a correlation between IAF and the magnitude of any MPIs. Overall, these results suggest that IAF does not represent a mechanism underlying MPIs.