Fig. 1: Stimuli and group-level data for the Muller–Lyer experiment (n = 10).
From: The human primary visual cortex (V1) encodes the perceived position of static but not moving objects
a Dot-variant Muller–Lyer illusion. The target dots (white) are spaced equidistantly, but with outward/inward fins they appear further apart/closer together. b Group-level neural signature collapsed across hemifields and fit with a Gaussian function. The vertical dotted line denotes physical target location. Consistent with the illusion, targets with outward fins appeared more peripheral. c V1 responses reconstructed in visual field. Red and blue denote positive and negative responses relative to baseline, respectively. White circles denote the physical target locations. d Individual fMRI effects plotted against perceptual effects. The shaded region denotes the 95% confidence interval (CI) estimated through bootstrapping. e Predicted neural signatures for simulated target locations (exaggerated for illustrative purpose) were correlated with the measured signatures. f Heat map showing correlation coefficient across simulated target locations. The best correlation (red line) for the two conditions was consistent with the illusion measured psychophysically.
