Large shifts in perceived motion direction reveal multiple global motion solutions

Moving objects are thought to be decomposed into one-dimensional motion components by early cortical visual processing. Two rules describing how these components might be re-combined to produce coherent object motion are the intersection of constraints and the vector average rules. Using stimuli for which these combination rules predict different directional solutions, we found that adapting one of the solutions through motion adaptation switched perceived direction to the other solution. The effects were symmetrical: shifts from IOC to VA, and from VA to IOC, were observed following adaptation. These large shifts indicate that multiple solutions to global motion processing coexist and compete to determine perceived motion direction.