Ritu Gavasane 10003020

How can visual illusions inform us about the nature of visual perception?
Eyes are one of the most sophisticated organs of any mammal. More sophisticated than the eyes is the way in which the brain processes light signals received by the eyes and the way it 'shows' us the physical world around us. However, 'Seeing is believing' is not always true. Most of the times, our eyes satisfactorily show us the physical three dimensional world that is present around us. Sometimes, however, we can also be shown some seeing effects by our eyes which are not really present. Many a times we are fooled by our own eyes. This phenomenon is called visual illusion which is quite a natural phenomenon. What is a visual illusion? In simple words, an illusion is a mistake made by our eyes. Scientific definition says that, visual illusions are the images formed in the mind that are perceived differently than how they actually are in reality. These images do not match the physical reality of the world. When we experience a visual illusion, we may see something that does not exist in reality, or do not notice something that is there, or see something different from what is there. Visual perception: The eye brain system works truly in an extraordinary manner. Right from the time when light enters the eye until we actually 'see' an object, numerous processes take place inside the eye and the brain. It is indeed fascinating to know that the eye shows us crystal clear image of the object while the actual image on the retina is inverted, back-to-front, blurred, crossed heavily by a network of veins. Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment by processing information that is contained in visible light. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision. The process from receiving light on the retina upto interpreting the image to 'show' us the object

is extremely complicated and has been broken down into six steps as given below: Visual perception occurs in six steps: 1. Reception 2. Transduction 3. Transmission 4. Selection 5. Organisation 6. Interpretation In the last step, i.e. the interpretation of the image formed on the retina, many a times the brain assumes certain things based on past experiences and the background scenery. Due to these assumptions, we sometimes perceive objects differently giving rise to illusions. Why do illusions occur? The image formed on the retina contains a lot more information than is actually transmitted to the brain by the optic nerve. This makes sense, if we consider that the 125 million photoreceptors in each retina converges onto 100 times fewer ganglion cells. To compensate for this huge loss of information and provide us with visual perceptions that are rich in contrast, colour, and movement, the brain introduces abstract parameters that often fill in or amplify the fragments of reality that it is given to work with. The brain's powers to interpret visual information in this way are so great that it sometimes creates an impression of coherence where there is none.

How are they being used as tools to study how the brain constructs visual experience? The particular way that certain elements in a scene are arranged visually can force your brain to make mistakes about the size of objects, the colour of surfaces, or the straightness of lines. These systematic errors are called optical illusions, and hundreds of them are now known. Most of the mechanisms that

cause optical illusions are fairly well understood, but some of them are still a mystery. Optical illusions give us a better understanding of how human visual perception works. They force us to recognize that contrary to what we might think, what we see of the world is not a simple physical record like a photograph. On the contrary, the signals that our eyes receive from the elements in a scene in front of them are often ambiguous. The brain is constantly interpreting these signals to construct an image that makes sense to it. In fact, the brain tries so hard to make sense of everything that it finds meaning even when there is none, thus creating an illusion. Let us consider one of the simplest examples of visual illusion. Two lines of equal length are placed together, one of them is horizontal and the other is vertical. The vertical line appears longer to us than the horizontal line. In the same way, another example is that of a square. A perfect square appears slightly taller than it is. This tells us about the nature of the perception of the eye that the brain automatically adds length to vertical lines in the course of normal visual processing.

The Zollner Illusion is one of the famous illusions. This contains a set of parallel, oblique lines crossed with short, angled line segments. The oblique lines do not appear parallel, when they are in reality. On explanation of the illusion suggests that the angle of the shorter line segments compared to the longer

lines create an impression of depth making some lines appear closer than others. Another explanation suggests that the brain tries to increase the angles between the short and long lines causing the lines to bend away and towards each other, resulting in the illusion. The illusion caused seems to increase when the angle between the shorter and longer lines is between 10 and 30 degrees.

Visual illusions also explain many of the properties and functions the brain carries out in order to interpret the signals received from the outer world. If we gaze at a bright source of light for quite some time, and then look at some other location which is less bright than the source, we see the source of light moving in random direction. Also if we gaze at a waterfall for some period of time, and then glance at stationary object beside the waterfall, the still object will appear to flow in a direction opposite to that of the waterfall. According to research, this illusion occurs because the neurons that detect motion in a specific direction (for instance downward in case of the waterfall), become adapted (that is, less active) in response to steady stimulation. Neurons that have not been adapted (such as the ones which detect the upward motion) are more active in comparison, despite having been at rest. The differential responses of both neuronal populations produce the illusion of the stationary rocks to the side of waterfall flowing upward for a few seconds.

Thus through these examples we come to know the way in which the brain responds to the visual signals and the way in which it perceives, though misleading sometimes, to give rise to visual illusions. References: 1. Reading 2 and 3 on illusion (from the course website) 2. http://www.oup.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/248734/EDW_PSYCH_1_and_2SB_C0
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%B6llner_illusion http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_02/i_02_p/i_02_p_vis/i_02_p_vis.html