OPTICAL ILLUSIONS: The Art of Deception of Perception Essay

The human brain is capable of perceiving and interpreting information or stimuli received through the sense organs (i.e., eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin) (Weiten, 1998). This ability to perceive and interpret stimulus allows the human being to make meaningful sense of the world and environment around them. However, even as the human being is able to perceive and interpret stimuli information through all sense organs, stimuli is most often or primarily interpreted using the visual (eyes) and auditory (ears) sense organs (Anderson, 2009). However, for the purpose of this paper, the visual information process will be examined.

The system consists of the eyes where the information is collected, geniculate lateral nucleus and visual cortex. The visual cortex could be subdivided into the primary visual cortex and the striate cortex. This sensory system is located at the back of a brain parts of which are located in both hemispheres. Recent studies obtained a sufficient amount of information in order to construct the two-stream hypothesis, which describes the ventral and dorsal streams. The ventral stream begins at the primary visual cortex and goes to the inferior temporal cortex. Main functional responsibilities of this area include identification of objects and the emergence of the long-term memory the origins of which are placed in this area (Rauschecker, Josef P and Sophie K. Scott 722). Dorsal stream also begins at the primary visual cortex and ends at the posterior parietal cortex. It is mainly responsible for the body part control required in order to manipulate an object. The research shows that these "what" and "why" systems are not directly related, and the damage in one affect the other only to a certain extent. It could be explained by the fact that that input is transformed differently via action and

The occipital lobes are located at the back of the brain. They receive and process visual information.

After being shown a picture of an elephant they eye will take the light that is reflected from the object and it will enter the eye through the pupil. Then the light will be focused by the cornea and the lens to form a sharp image of the elephant in the retina. The retina is the network of neurons that cover the back of the eye and contains the visual receptors for a person vision. The visual receptors are made up of cones and rods that contain light sensitive chemicals called visual pigments. Visual pigments reacht to light and cause a triggered electrical signals to occur. These electrical signals will then flow through a network of neurons and this network of neurons is what makes up a persons retina. After the flow through the network of neurons occurs the electrical signals will emerge from the back of the eye in the area

Also, on the retina is the optic disk. There are no photoreceptors in this area, so any light that falls on this part of the retina is unseen and creates what is called the blind spot. (Hugh

The temporal lobe is located on the bottom section of the brain. This lobe is

One wonders what an optical illusion is, “an optical illusion is a visually perceived image that differs from reality.” (Eifrig, 2014, n.p.). There are so many different types of optical illusions in which play with the brains of people. Optical illusions are normal because the majority of humans experience them. Humans’ vision tries its best to figure out what is happening to the picture, which then creates an image contradicting reality. Sometimes illusions can be entertaining because it fools the brain and one tries to figure out the image shown. Illusions cannot only be in a form of art but sometimes it happens whenever reading something without putting much effort.

The brain is the most important organ for regulating human behavior and thought. The brain is very complex and has taken centuries to discover how it functions. The brain is separated into four distinct regions or lobes. These regions are called the frontal lobe, the occipital lobe, the temporal lobe, and the parietal lobe. The frontal lobe is located directly behind the forehead and is the brain region that controls higher level thinking such as memory, planning, and judgment. The frontal lobe also contains motor cortex which allows voluntary movements. Another vital brain region is the occipital lobe. The occipital lobe can be found in the back of the brain. Its job is to process and store visual information. The occipital lobe

The Temporal lobe located at the bottom of the brain is used to process visual information. In the temporal lobe there is an area for language comprehension and the auditory cortex processes sound. This lobe helps with processes related to recognition and associative memory.

In this study, experimenters selectively lesioned layers 1-2 (M pathway) and 3-6 (P pathway), then mapped out the corresponding visual field area that suffered the lesions. They found that lesions of the P geniculate layers generated severe impairments in contrast sensitivity and stereoscopic vision at high spatial frequencies, as well as color, texture, pattern, and one of the shape discrimination tasks (Fig x). Lesion to M layers, on the other hand, produced impairment in flicker detection and the two motion detection tasks they studied. Interestingly, they noticed that neither M or P lesions alone led to significant impairment in brightness discrimination, or in coarse shape discrimination. These findings imply that M pathway seems sufficient to preserve some shape discrimination, and challenges the view that P pathway is the sole input for extrastriatal form

Fig. __ Feed-forward projections from the eyes to the brain and topographic mapping. In each eye the visual field on the left and right of the fovea (the cut goes right through the fovea!) projects to different cortical hemispheres: the ipsilateral retina projects to the ipsilateral visual cortex, and the contralateral retina crosses the contralateral cortex (hemifield crossing in the optic chiasma). The first synapse of the retinal ganglion cells is in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), but information from the left (L) and right (R) eye remains strictly separated. The LGN consists of six layers, layers 1 and 2 are primarily occupied by the magnocellular pathway, and 3–6 by the parvocellular. Information from both eyes comes first together

The occipital lobe is responsible for all things visual. It is located in the cortex and is responsible for the functions of the visual cortex, which is inside of the occipital lobe. Of all the senses, humans rely primarily on their vision and “have proportionally more visual cortex” (pg. 99). The occipital lobe would play its role while playing the game of cards, being able to see the cards I have been dealt and noticing the mannerisms and gestures of my friends.

c. One study showed a 37% reduction of the brain’s activity in the parietal lobe that processes cognitive, memory, information regarding the driving task, sense of direction and “spatial sense” as well as the occipital lobe that processes the visual information (Aker, 2011).

The brain identifies what it sees in a series of steps. The brain makes a feature map of the eye breaking the visual field into sections. Information collected in a particular section of the visual field will always be sent to the

The cerebral cortex is the largest outer most part of the brain. It consist of tissue known as gray matter which is made of neuronal bodies. The optimal function of the cerebral cortex is vitally important. All information necessary to sustain life is stored and processed in the cerebral cortex. The tissue are divided into the left and right sides which are joined together by the corpus callosum. The cerebral cortex is divided into four lobes, the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobe. Each area carrying its own set of functions and responsibilities. These four lobes together make up the primary somatosensory area of the brain which controls the five sensory systems in the brain taste, olfaction, touch, hearing and vision. These systems receive sensory information from the thalamic nerve projections. The primary motor area of the brain consist of a much smaller area located within