Summary
Apparent velocities of moving visual stimuli are known to be different depending on whether the subject pursues the stimulus (efferently controlled motion perception) or whether the eye is stationary and the image moves across the retina (afferent motion perception). Afferent motion perception of a periodic pattern or a moving single object causes overestimation of velocity (magnitude estimations) as compared to smooth pursuit. This socalled Aubert-Fleischl phenomenon is shown to depend on local temporal frequency stimulation on the retina caused by the repetitive passage of contrast borders of the moving periodic pattern. This is evidenced by the fact that for a given stimulus speed the amount of overestimation is a function of the spatial frequency of the pattern (or the angular subtend of a single moving object) and that the Aubert-Fleischl phenomenon is not observed if a single edge moves. Background characteristics seem not to influence the apparent velocity during smooth pursuit.
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Research was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 70 („Hirnforschung und Sinnesphysiologie”) and conducted while the second author was a “US Senior Scientist Awardee” of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung on leave from the Whitely Psychology Laboratories, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. USA.
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Dichgans, J., Wist, E., Diener, H.C. et al. The Aubert-Fleischl phenomenon: A temporal frequency effect on perceived velocity in afferent motion perception. Exp Brain Res 23, 529–533 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234920
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234920