The effect of unilateral brain lesions on perception of visual illusions

Abstract

The study tested the effect of the left and right hemisphere lesions on the susceptibility to visual illusions. Twenty-five patients with left hemisphere damage, 22 patients with right hemisphere damage and 23 control subjects inspected series of figures producing four different illusions: Ponzo, Ehrenstein-Orbison, Poggendorff and Zoellner. Series of stimuli configurations were constructed so that different degrees of distortion opposite to the illusory effect were introduced in each pattern. The amount of distortion was increased in steps so that at a certain point of the series the patterns produced percepts opposite to the illusory ones. That point indicated the strength of the illusion. Stimuli of a given series were presented to each subject 5 times in random order and subject's judgements of illusions were collected. The illusion strength was established using the Spearman distribution method for determining psychophysical thresholds. The results showed that the left and right hemisphere lesions either did not affect the subject's susceptibility to illusions (in Ponzo and Poggendorff) or their effects were similar, i.e. they reduced the strength of the perceived illusions (in Ehrenstein-Orbison and Zoellner). Our data contradict the hypothesis of hemisphere differences in the perception of visual illusions and support the view that those phenomena are multiple-caused.