Families of Stationary Patterns Producing Illusory Movement: Insights into the Visual System

A computational explanation of the illusory movement experienced upon extended viewing of Enigma, a static figure painted by Leviant, is presented. The explanation relies on a model for the interpretation of three–dimensional motion information contained in retinal motion measurements. This model shows that the Enigma figure is a special case of a larger class of figures exhibiting the same illusory movement and these figures are introduced here. Our explanation suggests that eye movements and/or accommodation changes cause weak retinal motion signals, which are interpreted by higher–level processes in a way that gives rise to these illusions, and proposes a number of new experiments to unravel the functional structure of the motion pathway.