Apparent Rotation and Jazzing in Leviant's Enigma Illusion

Abstract

In 1981 Leviant devised Enigma, a figure that elicits perceived rotary motion in the absence of real motion. However, despite its striking appearance there is no good explanation for this motion illusion to date. Gregory (1993 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B253 123) pointed out a similarity to MacKay's ‘complementary’ afterimage in his ray pattern and suggested accommodative fluctuations and small eye movements as a potential origin for these phenomena. Furthermore, Zeki et al (1993 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B252 215–222) found PET-activation in response to Enigma in visual area V5 and immediately surrounding areas (called V5 complex) suggesting that the illusory motion could be mediated by the same neurons as real motion. In the experiments reported here, I show that the rotary motion is perceived on coloured as well as achromatic annuli intercepting the radial lines. More importantly, the illusory streaming motion continues to be seen with a cycloplegic lens as well as through a pinhole (ie ruling out transient changes of accommodation), and in the positive afterimage (ie in the absence of eye movements). Apparent rotation is strongest with radial inducers impinging at right angles onto the annuli, but persist, although to a lesser degree, when the inducing lines are tilted in opposite directions, non-collinear, or replaced by dotted lines or lines with rounded terminators. For an explanation, the Enigma illusion requires a neural mechanism that uses lines abutting an empty annulus to elicit orthogonal streaming motion in one or the other direction.