The scintillating grid illusion during smooth pursuit, stimulus motion, and brief exposure in humans

Abstract

The Scintillating Grid Illusion occurs when small white disks are superimposed onto the intersections of a grey-on-black Hermann grid. As a result illusory dark spots are seen at numerous crossings, flashing with each flick of the eye and changing their location and distribution with each saccade. The illusion is absent with steady fixation. The present study shows that saccadic eye movements are not necessary to produce the illusion. Rather, the illusion was also found to occur (i) during smooth pursuit movements when the grid was stationary, (ii) during smooth displacement of the grid with the gaze kept steady, and (iii) during brief exposures of the stationary grid. It is concluded that, while transient stimulation is essential for generating the illusion, reduction in effective luminance contrast resulting from brief exposure and high stimulus speed are responsible for reductions in its strength.