Motion-reversal reveals two motion mechanisms functioning in scotopic vision.

We studied scotopic motion mechanisms, using a two-frame sinusoidal grating separated by various ISIs equated for mean luminance level. Perceived direction of displacement varied with both ISI and luminance. As luminance decreased, apparent motion reversal disappeared. This is predicted by a first-order motion model if the underlying temporal impulse response function varies from biphasic under photopic conditions to monophasic under scotopic conditions. Performance at long (but not short) ISIs depends upon stimulus contrast, suggesting there is also a scotopic feature-tracking mechanism. With isoluminant and high spatial frequency gratings, where the temporal impulse response function is monophasic, no motion reversal was observed.