Flash Lag Illusion

The flash lag illusion (or flash lag effect) is a motion perception illusion, where a flash and a moving object in the same location are perceived to be distant one another. Many theories have been applied to the phenomenon, trying to understand its cause and ultimately how the human brain works in such an environment. Up to now, there are three major plausible theories:

Motion Extrapolation Theory:

According to this theory, the brain tries to predict the trajectory of the moving object by perceiving it "in the future", i.e. in a location further along the object's trajectory, thus making it seem displaced from the flash

Latency Difference Theory:

In this theory, the flash and the moving object are perceived with different delays by the visual cortex: by the time the flash has been processed by our brain, the object has moved to a new location

Postdiction Theory:

The postdiction theory states that the perception of a visual occurrence can be modified by events happening until about 80 milliseconds after the visual event: in this case, after the flash the object is still moving and is thus perceived to be distant