Effect of Humming on the Visibility of a Stabilized Retinal Image

Abstract

RUSHTON¹ has recently described a series of ingenious experiments which demonstrate the effect of humming on the induction of stroboscopic patterns in non-fluctuating illumination. By introducing a number of controls and by studying the perception of presumably non-peripheral phenomena (such as the Pulfrich pendulum), he concludes that the strobing is induced because the humming sets up a mechanical vibration of the retina, and not, as might be suggested, by inducing “central strobing” through driving the rate of neuronal firing.