Ever tricked into watching an object or a picture and suddenly noticed that the perception of the object is changed. Well, that’s what an illusion is. It is simply, the process of misleading our brains while messing up with the perspective of objects.
So let’s know how an illusion is created and how it works.
Considering optical illusions, they use colors, light, and patterns to create images. These images are created in such a way that they mislead our brains. The image captured by the eye is processed by the brain and in fact, in an illusion, a perception is created by the brain which doesn’t exist in reality. And that doesn’t match with the true image. These types of illusions known as the optical illusions, simply trick our brain into believing something that does or doesn’t exist in reality and is virtual. It is simply the distortion of our senses. Optical illusions are the visual illusions that are created with the help of different arrangement of images and the effect of colors. They are used in the magic show and can be of great fun.
This is the very famous one (We have seen this one on the back cover of our classmate notebooks). This is known as the Herman Grid Illusion. Just try focusing on a single dot and you’ll realize they are all the white dots and none is black.
Optical illusions: When your brain can’t believe your eyes.
The optical illusions reveal about the working of our brain to a greater extent. However, every one of us may not be able to see or experience the illusions in the same way. It all depends on how the brain understands the perspective of the surroundings with the image.
Generally, how our eyes and brain process the information is all that is considered in a visual illusion. The brain and eyes are tricked into seeing and not seeing a few images, colors and patterns of the object or pictures, and that is how an illusion works.
The blind spot, peripheral vision, and mental filtering are the ones due to which we are tricked by these illusions.
Blind Spot is an area where the nerves and blood vessels connect to the eye and there are no cells present in the region. So it is not possible to see or perceive anything at that spot. Few illusions that ask to close one of our eyes and look at the image, take advantage of the blind spot. Looking with one of the eyes closed makes something that is located or present in the blind spot to disappear and you are thus, unable to view the real image.
In a peripheral vision, the details of an image or a pattern are often missed or left out by the brain. And the rest of it is filled by the brain with the matter present in peripheral vision. This happens in a few of the illusions when you are asked to focus on one point.
Mental filtering happens due to the assumptions that are made by the brain. And these are made based on memory and expectations. The brain filters most of the information based on the knowledge, so you immediately perceive or understand the image on your own. So, you don’t notice everything else present and this helps in avoiding the visual stimulus.
There are three main types of illusions and they include optical, auditory and tactile illusions. These distort our senses as they deceive our eyes, ears, and skin respectively.
Generally, no optical illusion causes harm to our vision, unless we don’t develop an eye strain by staring at the screen for long hours.
