Scientists discover how the brain falls into illusion sciences

The “expanded hole” is a famous optical visual in which a black spot appears as if it is expanding, but it is only a completely fixed drawing.

Visual illusions are pictures or scenes that deceive our eyes and make us see things that are not present or feel movement in fixed forms. This phenomenon occurs because the brain does not treat visual information as it is, but rather explains it based on previous expectations and experiences.

Visual illusions depend on visual and sensory effects that make the brain make mistakes to explain what it sees, and usually occurs due to contrast in colors, shades or geometric shapes.

Brain tangles

Recently, scientists at the Australian University of Flinders have developed a calculation that explains the reason for our vision of the illusion of movement in the fixed images, especially the expanding hole, as this model reveals how our eyes and our brain treat the contrast between colors to create the illusion of movement, and how this knowledge can improve artificial intelligence and photography Medical and safety systems.

The researchers concluded that this illusion occurs due to how the retina and the cerebral cortex work together, and it starts from retinal neurons, which are neurons found in the retina, and its function is to transfer visual information from the eye to the brain through the optic nerve. These cells make smart filters, as they pick up contrast, movement and colors and then send signals into the brain to translate them into a understood image.

But when looking at a high -contrast image, such as the illusion of the expanded hole, the researchers found that these cells are mistaken in realizing the contrast and presenting it as a kind of movement, and sends a signal to the brain by that.

As for the cerebral cortex, its aim is to explain the visual information and add the meaning to it, meaning that you do not realize that you see your friend except after the cerebral cortex interprets the image and gives it a meaning that says that this is your friend, and in some medical cases during which specific areas are affected by the brain, the patients see Things are completely clear and there is no problem with their eyes, but they do not understand what they see.

Because the indications of the contrast and movement issued from the retina were false due to the severity of the contrast, the cerebral cortex explains what it is seen based on these data, which makes us realize an expanded hole instead of a fixed image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spzvxwtefy

Future hopes

The researchers have studied this interaction between the eye network and the cerebral cortex in a statistical form, amid hopes that this model will help understand how human vision works.

At the same time, these results can help improve artificial vision systems, and in particular the model developed by artificial intelligence can help detect edges, textures and movement, which makes him treat pictures similar to human being.

The researchers believe that this model can also be useful in treating medical images, as it can be used to improve the clarity of MRI, computerized tomography and X -ray tests by simulating the discovery of the edge in the human visual system.

Besides, this model can improve the optical compensation devices for the blind, where an electronic slice is planted in the retina or the optic nerve with a small camera installed in smart glasses that take pictures, then the slide converts the images into electrical signals that the brain is explained as visible images.