169 Best Illusions--A Sampling
You won't believe your eyes when you see these visual illusions
169 Best Illusions--A Sampling
- Food for Thought: Visual Illusions Good Enough to Eat Our brains have evolved to quickly detect things that are important to human survival. In this “foodscape” by London photographer Carl Warner, meats and breads activate the higher-level circuits in our brain that are hard-wired to recognize foods. The image simultaneously activates circuits that recognize landmarks such as trees, paths and buildings.
> Buy the digital issue now for the rest of the illusions in this series CARL WARNER - Sculpting the Impossible: Solid Renditions of Visual Illusions Impossible figures, such as the famous Penrose triangle, depict 3-D objects that defy the laws of nature. Each corner of the triangle looks plausible on its own, so the brain accepts the object as a whole even though it cannot physically exist. Or can it? Artist Brian McKay created a giant version of the impossible triangle in Perth, Australia, in collaboration with architect Ahmad Abas. The illusion works only when the sculpture is photographed from one particular vantage point.
> Buy the digital issue now for the rest of the illusions in this series BJØRN CHRISTIAN TØRRISSEN (BJORNFREE.COM) - Art as Visual Research: Kinetic Illusions in Op Art With the birth of the op art movement in the 1960s, illusions became a recognized art form. The most striking examples of op art are kinetic illusions in which stationary patterns create the perception of motion. In this reinterpretation of French op artist Isia Léviant’s famous Enigma by neuroscientist and engineer Jorge Otero-Millan of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, the concentric green rings appear to fill with rapid illusory motion, as if millions of tiny and barely visible cars were driving hell-bent for leather around a track. Small, involuntary eye movements, called microsaccades, are responsible for this illusion.
> Buy the digital issue now for the rest of the illusions in this series JORGE OTERO-MILLAN Barrow Neurological Institute/University of Vigo - The Illusions of Love The way we see things depends on our frame of mind. In this illusion, Message of Love from the Dolphins, adult viewers see two nude lovers embracing. But when young children look at this image, they see only dolphins.
> Buy the digital issue now for the rest of the illusions in this series SANDRO DEL PRETE - The Eyes Have It As social primates, humans have a keen interest in where people are looking. Vision research Pawan Sinha of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows us with this illusion that our brains determine gaze direction by comparing the dark parts of the eyes (the irises and pupils) with the whites. In the normal photograph of Humphrey Bogart, the actor appears to be looking to his left, but in the photo negative he appears to be looking in the opposite direction even though his face is still turned toward the left. Even though we know that the irises are white in the reverse image, we can’t change our perception of the illusion.
> Buy the digital issue now for the rest of the illusions in this series PAWAN SINHA AND TOMASO POGGIO M.I.T. - What’s in a Face? Our brains are exquisitely tuned to perceive, recognize and remember faces. In the Illusion of Sex, by Gettysburg College psychologist Richard Russell, the left face is perceived as female while the right face is perceived as male. But the two images are actually identical, except that the contrast between the eyes and mouth and the rest of the face is higher for the face on the left. This illusion shows that contrast is an important cue for determining the sex of a face. It may also explain why cosmetics make women look more feminine.
> Buy the digital issue nowfor the rest of the illusions in this series RICHARD RUSSELL Gettysburg College - Colors Out of Space Sometimes we see colors where they do not physically exist. In this illusion, the colors of the small crosses appear to diffuse into the empty spaces surrounding each intersection. This effect is known as neon color spreading, because it resembles the glare from a neon light. It was reported in 1971 by Dario Varin of the University of Milan in Italy and independently rediscovered a few years later by Harrie van Tuijl of the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, but its neural causes are still unknown.
> Buy the digital issue nowfor the rest of the illusions in this series COURTESY OF AKIYOSHI KITAOKA, Ritsumeikan University - The Neuroscience of Yorick’s Ghost and Other Afterimages When you stare at an image, the neurons in your retina eventually adapt to this unchanging stimulus and stop responding to it. If you then look away, you can see a ghostly afterimage during the brief period that it takes for your neurons to reset to their responsive state. To experience a vintage afterimage illusion, stare at the X in Yorick’s left eye socket for about 30 seconds. Then look away at a wall or piece of paper, and you will see a ghostly apparition.
> Buy the digital issue nowfor the rest of the illusions in this series LIVEWIRE PUZZLES (WWW.PUZZLES.CA) - A Perspective on 3-D Visual Illusions The leaning tower illusion is one of the simplest visual tricks ever discovered, but it is also one of the most profound contributions to our understanding of depth perception. Three years ago Frederick Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi and Elena Gheorghiu of McGill University noticed that two identical side-by-side images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa appeared to lean at different angles. Because the two towers do not converge as they recede into the distance, the brain mistakenly perceives them as nonparallel and diverging.
> Buy the digital issue now for the rest of the illusions in this series ADRIANA OLMOS; FROM “THE LEANING TOWER ILLUSION: A NEW ILLUSION OF PERSPECTIVE,” BY F.A.A. KINGDOM, A. YOONESSI, AND E. GHEORGHIU, IN PERCEPTION, VOL. 36; 2007 - The Neuroscience of Illusion Brightness and color can have powerful effects on perception. In this illusion created by vision scientist Edward H. Adelson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, squares A and B are the same shade of gray. (If you don’t believe it, print out this page, cut out the two squares and place them side by side.) Our brain does not perceive the true brightness and color of each square but instead determines the brightness and color of A and B by comparison with the squares surrounding them.
> Buy the digital issue now for the rest of the illusions in this series EDWARD H. ADELSON M.I.T.
