Rotating Snakes Illusion—Quantitative Analysis Reveals a Region in Luminance Space With Opposite Illusory Rotation

The Rotating Snakes Illusion employs patterns with repetitive asymmetric luminance steps forming a “snake wheel.” In the underlying luminance sequence {black, dark grey, white, light grey}, coded as {0, g1, 100, g2}, we varied g1 and g2 and measured illusion strength via nulling: Saccades were performed next to a “snake wheel” that rotated physically; observers adjusted rotation until a stationary percept obtained. Observers performed the perceptual nulling of the seeming rotation reliably. Typical settings for (g1, g2), measured from images by Kitaoka, are around (20%, 60%). Indeed, we found a marked illusion in the region (g1≈{0%–25%}, g2≈{20%–75%}) with a rotation speed of ≈1°/s. Surprisingly, we detected a second “island” around (70%, 95%) with opposite direction of the illusory rotation and weaker illusion. Our quantitative measurements of illusion strength confirmed the optimal luminance choices of the standard snake wheel and, unexpectedly, revealed an opposite rotation illusion.