The switching glare illusion: Appearance and disappearance of glare effect due to figure-ground reversal

The glare illusion is an illusory perception of brightness enhancement and self-luminosity from a glare pattern, which consists of a central white area and surrounding areas with radial darkening luminance gradients. Here, we report a phenomenon we call “the switching glare illusion.” In this phenomenon, observers experience perceptual alternation in which the glare effect repeatedly appears and disappears or attenuates when the multiple glare patterns are arranged in a grid pattern. This perceptual alternation is caused by a figure-ground reversal in the grid pattern. Since such a phenomenon has not been reported for a single glare pattern, this is caused by arranging multiple glare patterns in a grid. This new finding is worthy for further studies for understanding the mechanisms underlying the glare effect and brightness perception.