Summary
When the eyes follow a small target moving across a stationary random dot pattern illuminated stroboscopically at 3–45 flashes · s-1, the structure of the random dot pattern is seen as moving in the direction of the eye pursuit movements (σ-movement). At flash frequencies above 9.5 flashes · s-1, periodic stripes oriented perpendicularly to the direction of the pursuit eye movements appear and are also seen as moving in the direction of the eye pursuit movement. The period Ps* of the apparent stripes depended on the flash frequency fs and the angular speed of the eyes Ve:
Apparent sigma-movement and apparent stripes were also seen when eye pursuit movements were initiated outside of the random dot pattern and they continued autonomously without a moving target across the pattern. The angular velocity of the σ-pursuit movement across the random dot pattern depended on the flash frequency and the angular velocity of the initiating target.
With the eyes stationary but a moving random dot pattern, the apparent stripes also appeared at flash frequencies fs ≥ 9.5 flashes · s-1. Eq. (1) was valid when Ve was replaced by the target angular velocity Vs (k* = 1).
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Adler, B., Grüsser, O.J. Apparent movement and appearance of periodic stripes during eye movements across a stroboscopically illuminated random dot pattern. Exp Brain Res 37, 537–550 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00236822
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00236822