A Three-Dimensional Motion Aftereffect Produced by Prolonged Adaptation to a Rotation Simulation

After adaptation to a perspective simulation of a square plane rotating in depth, an ambiguous rotation simulation (ie one containing no perspective information) appears to rotate in the direction opposite that of adaptation. The strength of this three-dimensional motion aftereffect (MAE) is proportional to the amount of perspective available in the adaptation display and, in the dark, decays to about 75% of its initial strength within about 546 s. The nature of the testing situation and a control experiment suggest that the three-dimensional MAE is not caused by retinal adaptation of two-dimensional directionally selective mechanisms.