An illusion of velocity in motion perception

We report a phenomenon that seems to have potential to elucidate a role of eye movement in motion perception. When tracking a target controlled by a triangular wave, the viewer perceives movement of the target like a ball bouncing in between two walls. We measured eye movement with electrooculograms (EOGs) when the subject was tracking a target controlled by a triangular wave. Eye movement after passing the turning point and rapidly returning to the target with saccadic movement and then smoothly tracking the target was recorded for all 4 adults. It was considered that extraretinal information on eye position during saccade may mainly contribute to this illusion.