Implied motion produces real depth

Static images taken from an animation of continuous motion, such as a photograph of a figure in a running pose, contain no real motion (RM) information. Interestingly, while imaging studies have shown that passively viewing these implied motion (IM) stimuli activate the same brain regions as RM, the perceptual effects of adding IM to RM are not fully understood. Given that IM appears to recruit the same neural mechanisms as RM, it should be possible to capitalize on this functional overlap and use IM in addition to, or in place of, RM to influence the perception of depth from motion parallax (MP). In the current study, we found that IM influenced depth-sign judgments as expected based on the geometry of MP with RM. These results bolster our understanding of the neural mechanisms of both IM and MP by demonstrating that IM coupled with pursuit eye movements generates unambiguous depth from MP.