title: Perception of a border defined by rapidly reversing luminance contrast.
abstract: We report a new visual illusion of a perceptual boundary visible between two contiguous regions of equal luminance when the intensity is modulated with a temporal frequency that is higher than the critical fusion rate. Measurements of the luminance threshold of the perceptual border with various slopes of the luminance gradient yielded a function suggestive of the range of ocular instability. These findings raise the possibility that this new border illusion may be influenced by involuntary ocular motion during fixation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Cornell University Medical College, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hirsch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005425:Flicker Fusion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009760:Nystagmus, Physiologic; D009903:Optical Illusions; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D012684:Sensory Thresholds