  Rotating Snakes is a visual illusion in which a stationary design is
perceived to move dramatically. In the current study, the mechanism that
generates perception of motion was analyzed using a combination of
psychophysics experiments and deep neural network models that mimic human
vision. We prepared three- and four-color illusion-like designs with a wide
range of luminance and measured their strength of induced rotational motion. As
a result, we discovered the fundamental law that the effect of the four-color
snake rotation illusion was successfully enhanced by the combination of two
perceptual motion vectors produced by the two three-color designs. In years to
come, deep neural network technology will be one of the most effective tools
not only for engineering applications but also for human perception research.

Neurons and Cognition