Color perception of flickering light in the phantom array

When the color of the flickering light changes during a saccade, we perceive the color of the light decomposed to a sequence of dashes of different colors. To test color distortion effects, we varied stimulus flashing frequency and color pattern in the sequence of flashes. The perception of the color sequence varied among the subjects. We found that some subjects reported seeing the correct color sequence, while others experienced various distortions: misplaced color positions in the sequence, perception of additional colors that were not present in the physical sequence, and color mixing. To identify eye movement influence on color distortions we ran a separate experiment where the same retinal stimulation was achieved with the color flickering stimulus moving across the stationary eyes. In this case, no color distortion effects were reported.