A new study isolates the area of the visual cortex that allows our brains to produce certain types of optical illusions. (Very cool stuff - but don't be fooled by the headline "Optical Illusion Explained!" because, as usual, it's ridiculously overblown.)
"The scientists trained monkeys to stare at a screen with an image of a Kanizsa square (a variant of the Kanizsa triangle) — four "Pac-Man" shapes with their mouths arranged to form the corners of a square. The square doesn't actually exist, but the brain creates one by mentally connecting the dots. When the monkeys were looking at the Kanizsa square, neurons in V4 of their brains that were involved in representing the middle of the square started firing. But when the monkeys saw the same Pac-Man shapes facing outward, so they no longer framed a square, those same neurons turned off."
Article: Receptive field focus of visual area V4 neurons determines responses to illusory surfaces. doi:10.1073/pnas.1310806110 PNAS October 1, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment