Motion-induced Blindness Research Articles

Motion-Induced Blindness and Motion Streak Suppression

In motion-induced blindness (MIB), persistent static targets intermittently disappear when presented near moving elements [1, 2]. There is currently no consensus regarding the cause or causes of MIB [3-7]. Here, we link the phenomenon to a mechanism that is integral for normal human vision, motion streak suppression [8]. The human visual system integrates information over time [9], resulting in streaks of activity across visual brain regions when objects move [10, 11]. These "motion streaks" are usually suppressed from awareness. Our results suggest that this process shapes MIB. We show that MIB is enhanced at the trailing edges of movement and that both MIB and motion streak suppression are impaired at equiluminance. These findings suggest that an apparent failure of human vision, MIB, is at least partially driven by a functional adaptation that facilitates clear perceptions of moving form.

Motion Induced Blindness: The more you attend the less you see

Motion Induced Blindness: The more you attend the less you see

Attentional influences on the dynamics of motion-induced blindness

Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is a visual phenomenon in which a highly salient, peripheral, visual target spontaneously disappears from visual awareness (and subsequently reappears) when superimposed on a globally moving background of distracters. Here, we investigated the influence of attention on these fluctuations in perception in two experiments. In the first experiment, directing spatial attention to the MIB target (and thus away from the distracters) led to an increased probability of disappearance of the target. This counter-intuitive effect of attention enhancing disappearance is nonetheless consistent with earlier reports that increased target salience enhances disappearance. Conversely, in a second experiment withdrawing attention from the entire MIB display (both target and distracters) led to a decrease in perceptual disappearances and reappearances, as well as prolonged periods of invisibility. Taken together these findings suggest that the global availability of attention facilitates competition between target and moving distracters, while the local direction of attention toward or away from the target can influence the outcome of that competition. Thus, in common with other related perceptual phenomena, attention has complex effects on the dynamics of target-distracter interactions associated with motion-induced blindness.

Perceptual and physiological evidence for a role for early visual areas in motion-induced blindness

Visual disappearance illusions, such as motion-induced blindness, are commonly used to study the neural correlates of visual perception. In such illusions a salient visual target becomes perceptually invisible. Previous studies are inconsistent regarding the role of early visual areas in these illusions. Here we provide physiological and psychophysical evidence suggesting a role for early visual areas in generating motion-induced blindness, and we provide a conceptual model by which different brain areas might contribute to the perceptual disappearance in this illusion.

Opposite Neural Signatures of Motion-Induced Blindness in Human Dorsal and Ventral Visual Cortex

Motion-induced blindness (MIB) is a visual phenomenon in which a salient static target spontaneously fluctuates in and out of visual awareness when surrounded by a moving mask pattern. It has been hypothesized that MIB reflects an antagonistic interplay between cortical representations of the static target and moving mask. Here, we report evidence for such antagonism between human ventral and dorsal visual cortex during MIB. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses in ventral visual area V4 decreased with the subjective disappearance of the target. These response decreases were specific for the cortical subregion corresponding retinotopically to the target, occurred early in time with respect to the perceptual report, and could not be explained by shifts of attention in reaction to target disappearance. At the same time, responses increased in mask-specific subregions in dorsal visual areas in and around the intraparietal sulcus. These opposite responses in ventral and dorsal visual areas occurred only during subjective target disappearance, not when the target was physically removed. Perceptual reports of target disappearance were furthermore associated with a "global" modulation of activity, which was delayed in time, and evident throughout early visual cortex, for both subjective target disappearance and physical target removal. We conclude that awareness of the target is tightly linked to the strength of its representation in ventral visual cortex, and that the mask representation in dorsal visual cortex plays a crucial role in the spontaneous suppression of the target representation during MIB.

“Perceptual Scotomas”

In motion-induced blindness (MIB), salient objects in full view can repeatedly fluctuate into and out of conscious awareness when superimposed onto certain global moving patterns. Here we suggest a new account of this striking phenomenon: Rather than being a failure of visual processing, MIB may be a functional product of the visual system's attempt to separate distal stimuli from artifacts of damage to the visual system itself. When a small object is invariant despite changes that are occurring to a global region of the surrounding visual field, the visual system may discount that stimulus as akin to a scotoma, and may thus expunge it from awareness. We describe three experiments demonstrating new phenomena predicted by this account and discuss how it can also explain several previous results.

Motion-induced blindness is not tuned to retinal speed

Motion-induced blindness is a visual phenomenon in which a moving pattern can cause superimposed static targets that remain physically present to intermittently disappear from awareness. To date, there has been little systematic investigation of the type of motion that induces the most robust perceptual disappearances. To address this issue, we investigated the temporal frequency and stimulus speed sensitivity of this phenomenon in two experiments. In the first, we used radial gratings and waveform modulation to decouple spatiotemporal frequency and retinal speed characteristics. The results suggested that motion-induced disappearances are tuned to temporal frequency, but not to stimulus speed. In the second, we showed that luminance flicker-induced disappearances were tuned to the same temporal frequency as motion-induced disappearances. In combination, these data suggest that motion-induced blindness does not depend on retinal stimulus speed. Rather, it seems to be broadly tuned for moderate rates of temporal modulation. This observation is reminiscent of other instances where motion and spatial coding interact to modulate visibility.

Physiological Mechanisms Underlying Motion-Induced Blindness

AbstractVisual disappearance illusions - such as motion-induced blindness (MIB) - are commonly used to study the neural underpinnings of visual perception. In such illusions a salient visual target becomes perceptually invisible. Previous studies are inconsistent regarding the role of primary visual cortex (V1) in these illusions. Here we provide physiological and psychophysical evidence supporting a role for V1 in generating MIB.

Self and world: large scale installations at science museums

This paper describes three examples of illusion installation in a science museum environment from the author's collaboration with the artist and architect. The installations amplify the illusory effects, such as vection (visually-induced sensation of self motion) and motion-induced blindness, to emphasize that perception is not just to obtain structure and features of objects, but rather to grasp the dynamic relationship between the self and the world. Scaling up the size and utilizing the live human body turned out to be keys for installations with higher emotional impact.

Sensory and decisional factors in motion-induced blindness

The processes underlying motion-induced blindness (MIB) are widely debated. Ultimately, however, they must reduce to a sensitivity drop and/or to an upward shift of the decision criterion. The first possibility was tested by assessing the detection threshold for a contrast (or luminance) increment applied to the MIB target under its visible and suppressed phases. This was performed over a whole range of reference target contrasts (yielding the standard Threshold vs. Contrast [TvC] function) with a 2AFC staircase procedure. The second possibility was tested with a Yes/No procedure, allowing the assessment of both the sensitivities (d') and decision criteria (c) yielded by four contrast increments applied to a fixed reference target contrast (the psychometric function). The 2AFC procedure yielded a global upward shift of the TvC function of about 5.3 dB (a factor of 1.84) under the suppressed phase. The Yes/No procedure yielded a commensurate d' drop (of about 0.8 sigma) under the suppressed phase with no change in the slope of the psychometric function and an upward shift of c of about 0.7 sigma. The presently observed vertical shift (in log-log coordinates) of the TvC function in the suppressed phase is indicative of a divisive inhibition occurring after the transducing stage. The invariance of the psychometric function slope under the visible and suppressed MIB phases supports this conclusion. The present experiments cannot settle the issue of whether the upward shift of the decision criteria is yet another cause of the MIB or a consequence of its underlying inhibitory process. Instead, they make clear that MIB (and perhaps other unstable perceptual phenomena) is associated with both sensory and decisional processes.

Attentional modulation of motion-induced blindness

When a global moving pattern is superimposed on high-contrast stationary or slowly moving stimuli, the stimuli can be perceived as disappearing and reappearing alternately for periods of several seconds. This visual illusory phenomenon was named “motion-induced blindness” (MIB) in recent literature. So far there is no consensus on the mechanism of MIB, especially on the role of attention in this phenomenon. To examine the effect of spatial attention on MIB, the present study manipulated the participants’ spatial attention by asking them to respond to two targets simultaneously presented in bilateral visual fields (the divided-attention condition) or only respond to one of them (the focused-attention condition). A central arrow was presented as an endogenous cue to index the target visual field in the focused-attention condition, while a point was presented instead in the divided-attention condition. The results show that the percentage of accumulated invisibility period was larger for the targets in the focused-attention condition than for those in the divided-attention condition. This effect of attention is significant in upper visual field (UVF) and left lower visual field (left LVF); that is, this effect shows a hemispheric asymmetry in LVF but not in UVF. Furthermore, the percentage of accumulated invisibility period was larger for targets in left LVF than for those in right LVF in the focused-attention condition, but no hemispheric asymmetry was found in the divided-attention condition. In addition, the increased percentage of accumulated invisibility period in the focused-attention condition originated merely in the enhancement of the mean phase duration of disappearance in LVF, while the disappearance occurred more frequently and lasted longer for each occurrence, which led to an increase in the total invisibility period, in the focused-than divided-attention condition in UVF. These results suggest that the modulation of spatial attention on MIB has different patterns in UVF and LVF.

Motion-induced blindness in seeing a movie of driving scenes

Motion-induced blindness in seeing a movie of driving scenes

How an abrupt onset cue can release motion-induced blindness

In motion-induced blindness (MIB), a target within rotating random dots is occasionally hidden from observers’ consciousness during observation. In the present study, a red ring-like cue was centered on a target and presented immediately after observers reported subjective disappearance of the target in MIB (Experiment 1). The radius of the cue was systematically modulated. Observers quickly regained awareness of the disappeared object only after they were provided with a pinpoint cue of its location. We also found that a flickering cue at 1 Hz hindered MIB when the radius of the cue was critically small (Experiment 2). Furthermore, abrupt onset of a small square was enough to regain awareness of the target (Experiment 3). Successful revival of the target with a small cue indicates that critical spatial distribution of visual attention determines what in the visual scene is included in visual awareness.

Preceding stimulus awareness augments offset-evoked potentials: Evidence from motion-induced blindness

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured in response to the objective offset of a visual disk under two physically similar conditions: (1) visible conditions in which the target disk was well perceived and (2) invisible conditions in which participants reported to have not seen the target because of motion-induced blindness (Bonneh, Cooperman, & Sagi in Nature 411:798-801, 2001). Electrophysiological responses to the physical offset of the target disk were almost completely absent in the invisible conditions (Experiment 2). In the same conditions, the physical offset was almost completely invisible (Experiment 1). Results suggest an augmenting function of prior awareness of a stimulus for the offset-triggered ERP of that stimulus.

The effect of motion adaptation on motion-induced blindness

The effect of motion adaptation on motion-induced blindness

A common mechanism for perceptual filling-in and motion-induced blindness

Perceptual-filling-in (PFI) and motion-induced-blindness (MIB) are two phenomena of temporary blindness in which, after prolonged viewing, perceptually salient targets repeatedly disappear and reappear, amidst a field of distracters (i.e., non-targets). Past studies have shown that boundary adaptation is important in PFI, and that depth ordering between target and distracter pattern is important in MIB. Here we show that the reverse is also true; that boundary adaptation is important in MIB, and that depth ordering is important in PFI. Results corroborate our earlier conjecture that PFI and MIB are highly related phenomena that share a common underlying mechanism. We argue that this mechanism involves boundary adaptation, but also that the depth effect shows that boundary adaptation can be no more than a sufficient cause of PFI and MIB, and not a necessary one.

Reduced perception of the motion-induced blindness illusion in schizophrenia

Motion-induced blindness (MIB) occurs when target stimuli are presented together with a moving distractor pattern. Most observers experience the targets disappearing and reappearing repeatedly for periods of up to several seconds. MIB can be viewed as a striking marker for the organization of cognitive functioning. In the present study, MIB rates and durations were assessed in 34 schizophrenia-spectrum disorder patients and matched controls. The results showed that positive symptoms and excitement enhanced MIB, whereas depression and negative symptoms attenuated the illusion. MIB was more frequently found in normal subjects. The results remained consistent after adjusting for reaction time and error rates. Hence, MIB may provide a valid and reliable measure of cognitive organization in schizophrenia.

Forming and updating object representations without awareness: evidence from motion-induced blindness

The input to visual processing consists of an undifferentiated array of features which must be parsed into discrete units. Here we explore the degree to which conscious awareness is important for forming such object representations, and for updating them in the face of changing visual scenes. We do so by exploiting the phenomenon of motion-induced blindness (MIB), wherein salient (and even attended) objects fluctuate into and out of conscious awareness when superimposed onto certain global motion patterns. By introducing changes to unseen visual stimuli during MIB, we demonstrate that object representations can be formed and updated even without conscious access to those objects. Such changes can then influence not only how stimuli reenter awareness, but also what reenters awareness. We demonstrate that this processing encompasses simple object representations and also several independent Gestalt grouping cues. We conclude that flexible visual parsing over time and visual change can occur even without conscious perception. Methodologically, we conclude that MIB may be an especially useful tool for studying the role of awareness in visual processing and vice versa.

Seeing the Disappearance of Unseen Objects

Because of the massive amount of incoming visual information, perception is fundamentally selective. We are aware of only a small subset of our visual input at any given moment, and a great deal of activity can occur right in front of our eyes without reaching awareness. While previous work has shown that even salient visual objects can go unseen, here we demonstrate the opposite pattern, wherein observers perceive stimuli which are not physically present. In particular, we show in two motion-induced blindness experiments that unseen objects can momentarily reenter awareness when they physically disappear: in some situations, you can see the disappearance of something you can't see. Moreover, when a stimulus changes outside of awareness in this situation and then physically disappears, observers momentarily see the altered version--thus perceiving properties of an object that they had never seen before, after that object is already gone. This phenomenon of 'perceptual reentry' yields new insights into the relationship between visual memory and conscious awareness.

Motion-induced blindness does not affect the formation of negative afterimages

Aftereffects induced by invisible stimuli constitute a powerful tool to investigate what type of neural information processing can occur in the absence of visual awareness. This approach has been successfully used to demonstrate that awareness of oriented gratings or translating stimuli is not necessary to obtain a robust orientation-specific or motion-specific aftereffect. We exploit motion-induced blindness (MIB, Bonneh, Cooperman, & Sagi, 2001) to investigate the related question of the influence of visual awareness on the formation of negative afterimages. Our results show that MIB does not affect the persistence and intensity of afterimages. Thus, there is no significant contribution to the formation of afterimages beyond the sites mediating MIB.