This article is to provide evidence that deep breathing had great influence on the perception of stimuli that trigger illusory motion perception. We had used two different stimuli; the first one can be considered as bistable rivalrous stimulus because it can trigger illusory motion reversals during its motion. The second stimulus is stationary, namely rotating snakes illusion, it is also bistable rivalrous stimulus because it has two states, stationary versus illusory motion. We had noticed that deep inhalation slows down the speed of the first stimulus and eliminates the illusory motion perception of the second stimulus. This might be because the amount of the hobgoblin red blood cells, possibly including the rich oxygenated ones, might be forcibly reduced in the brain during the intended inhalation, in turn, different parts in the brain, including hMT+ region, might be partially deactivated, see reference 1 and 2. Significant reduction against stimulus’ contrast is known to slow down the perceived speed, it also diminishes the activities of the retinal peripheries and their corresponding neurological connections that collectively build up the peripheral brain; we therefore suspect the peripheral hMT+ region to be inactivated by the deep inhalation. Strong exhalation, however, triggers illusory motion reversal for the first stimulus, and promotes illusory motion perception for the second stimulus; behavior that can be explained by the increased amount of the hobgoblin red blood cells that may activate different necessary regions in the peripheral brain. Astonishingly, we found that deep inhalation and exhalation sufficiently can control the aforementioned bistable visual perception.
Halt and recovery of illusory motion perception from peripherally viewed static images
