How Do 3D Optical Illusions Work In The Brain And Eye?
The Human brain put images together because they have learned to expect things, and sometimes the data might get a little confused. We may see an illusion because we know what we are expected to see, even though part of a picture or design may not be completely there. The basis of this is in how we perceive things. That almost explains everything right there. If our brain and eyes did not function like they do, we would not see illusions like we do. One example of optical illusion is the television. The television is just shows us a continuous flow of still pictures, one right after the other. Our eyes along with your brain fill in all of the empty spots. Our brain has learned to expect movement. As a result, our brain can fill in all of the missing pieces and the television appears to be actually moving to you, even though it really isn’t!
“It is our illusions that create the world”, says Didier Cauwelaert. That’s so true! The big blue sky appears flat; the sun appears to move across the sky, flat areas often appear to be having depth! All these are optical illusions, wonders created by our optical mechanism known as the eye! Optical illusions are attributed to either the visual perceptions or our intellectual interpretations. A study shows that our past experiences, desires and influences are also responsible for making optical illusions work. Look at the picture alongside. Could you make out which one’s the real and which one’s the shadow? Well any guess could be right, as it’s an optical illusion! Illusions often result due to mistaken judgments or erroneous vision. An error in estimating the distance to an object is due to mistaken judgment. A bright object often appears larger than a dark object of same dimensions. When objects of contrasting colors are placed in close vicinity, a certain color may be mistaken to be
The most obvious weakness that our eyes have is that the light detectors in our eyes get tired if we use them too much. This happens when we look at something too bright, or stare at something for too long. If you’ve ever looked at something bright and then looked away, you might have noticed that you see a black spot floating in front of you that disappears after a while. This happens because the bright light really wears out our light detectors, so when we look away, those light detectors that got hit with the really bright light aren’t working as well any more, so that part of our vision is darker. Your brain is constantly trying to make sense of the world around you. To do this, when your brain gets visual information from your eyes, it tries to compare it to other familiar things that you remember, things you’ve seen before.
