Visual alchemy: stereoscopic adaptation produces kinetic depth from random noise

Observers perceive incoherent motion and no hint of depth when viewing stochastic motion, in which stimulus elements move in all possible directions. As earlier work has shown, depth can be specified by introducing a brief interocular delay between the presentation of corresponding animation frames of this 'noise' to the left and right eyes. A study is reported in which observers were adapted to a stereoscopic display consisting of coherent planes of motion at different depths. This stereoscopic adaptation caused incoherent depthless motion to take on the qualities of structure and depth, and it could nullify the depth induced by interocular delay. The findings are interpreted within the context of a neural model consisting of units selectively responsive to different directions of motion at different planes of depth.