Perception Of Visual Illusions Research Articles

The moderating role of early traumatic experiences on the association of schizotypal traits with visual perception.

The findings on the association of schizotypal traits with the perception of visual illusions are scarce and inconsistent and have not taken into consideration potential effects of childhood traumatic experiences, a risk factor for schizophrenia-spectrum conditions. Thus, the present study addressed the question of potential moderating effects of early traumatic experiences on the association between different aspects of schizotypal traits with the perception of the Müller-Lyer and Navon's Hierarchical Letters (NHL) illusions. The study revealed that (a) increased suspiciousness was associated with increased liability to the Müller-Lyer illusion, when the exposure to traumatic events was high, whereas the opposite pattern was true when the exposure to traumatic events was low; (b) negative schizotypy was associated with more accurate global perception, and high disorganized schizotypy was associated with superior accuracy when target letters were present during the NHL illusion, when early traumatic experiences were at lower levels; and (c) high negative, disorganized, and total schizotypy were associated with lower accuracy when target letters were present in the NHL paradigm, when early traumatic experiences were at higher levels. The findings of the study suggest that early traumatic events differentially moderate the relationship between various aspects of schizotypal traits and visual perceptual processing.

The Mechanisms of the Visual System Behind Visual Illusions: From Eye to Brain

Visual illusion is a psychological phenomenon characterized by perception that appears to differ from physical reality. Illusory perception persists even though the sufferers are aware of the physical properties of what they are observing. Thus, studying visual illusions has led to an improved understanding of the neural mechanism underlying visual information processing. Visual illusions are important tools in neuroscience. Some brightness illusions, such as the Hermann grid illusion or Chevreul illusion, can be explained by the function of the center-surround antagonistic receptive field of retinal ganglion cells. Additionally, color aftereffects were found to be produced in the retina. In addition, neurons in the primary visual cortex are responsible for the orientation-contingent color aftereffect, known as the McCollough effect. ISI reversal, a visual motion illusion, is known to be caused by a biphasic temporal mechanism located in the retinal or lower visual areas. Higher visual areas are responsible for the production of visual illusions such as the Ponzo illusion, size constancy illusion, or tabletop illusion. These illusions are perceived through the process of achieving size constancy from a two-dimensional retinal image. Thus, both low-level and high-level vision are involved in the perception of visual illusions.

Individual differences in the perception of visual illusions are stable across eyes, time, and measurement methods.

Vision scientists have tried to classify illusions for more than a century. For example, some studies suggested that there is a unique common factor for all visual illusions. Other studies proposed that there are several subclasses of illusions, such as illusions of linear extent or distortions. We previously observed strong within-illusion correlations but only weak between-illusion correlations, arguing in favor of an even higher multifactorial space with—more or less—each illusion making up its own factor. These mixed results are surprising. Here, we examined to what extent individual differences in the perception of visual illusions are stable across eyes, time, and measurement methods. First, we did not find any significant differences in the magnitudes of the seven illusions tested with monocular or binocular viewing conditions. In addition, illusion magnitudes were not significantly predicted by visual acuity. Second, we observed stable individual differences over time. Last, we compared two illusion measurements, namely an adjustment procedure and a method of constant stimuli, which both led to similar individual differences. Hence, it is unlikely that the individual differences in the perception of visual illusions arise from instability across eyes, time, and measurement methods.

Poetics of Visual Image in “Caucasian text” by A. S. Griboedov

The object of the research is the “Caucasian text” by A. S. Griboedov in his pictorial aesthetics. The purpose of the study is to identify the features and principles of creating the illusion of visual perception in the "Caucasian text" by A. S. Griboedov. The relevance of the problem is determined by the accentuation of the value acquaintance of the Russian reader with the Caucasian culture in its natural component, as well as the insufficient knowledge of the "Caucasian text" by A. S. Griboedov and the need to clarify the features of the formation of the poet's artistic method. The novelty of the study is to identify the features of the poetics of visualization in the “Caucasian text” by A. S. Griboedov, to determine the mechanisms of verbal transmission of the picturesque. By analyzing the “Caucasian text” in the tradition of pittoresque voyage (traveling in search of the picturesque), the article first examines the poetics of pictorial art of A. S. Griboedov, manifested in the selection of colorful views, following the principle of local color, finding color solutions for verbal landscapes. Among the leading principles of visualization, the principles of framing, the alternation of general, large and super-large (volumetric images of small details) plans stand out. Conclusions are drawn about the importance of visualization tools for creating natural and national everyday paintings in the Caucasus. The dominance of the poetics of tangible objectivity in the reproduction of national paintings and historical events allows us to consider the “Caucasian text” by A. S. Griboedov as a step towards a new, realistic tradition of depicting the Caucasus, and realism as the basis of the poet’s artistic method.

Is the perception of illusions abnormal in schizophrenia?

There seems to be no common factor for visual perception, i.e., performance in visual tasks correlates only weakly with each other. Similar results were found with visual illusions. One may expect common visual factors for individuals suffering from pathologies that alter brain functioning, such as schizophrenia. For example, patients who are more severely affected by the disease, e.g., stronger positive symptoms, may show increased illusion magnitudes. Here, in the first experiment, we used a battery of seven visual illusions and a mental imagery questionnaire. Illusion magnitudes for the seven illusions did not differ significantly between the patients and controls. In addition, correlations between the different illusions and mental imagery were low. In the second experiment, we tested 59 patients (mostly outpatients) with ten visual illusions. As for the first experiment, patients and controls showed similar susceptibility to all but one visual illusion. Moreover, there were no significant correlations between different illusions, symptoms, or medication type. Thus, it seems that perception of visual illusions is mostly intact in schizophrenia.

Spatial Alignment and Response Hand in Geometric and Motion Illusions

Perception of visual illusions is susceptible to manipulation of their spatial properties. Further, illusions can sometimes affect visually guided actions, especially the movement planning phase. Remarkably, visual properties of objects related to actions, such as affordances, can prime more accurate perceptual judgements. In spite of the amount of knowledge available on affordances and on the influence of illusions on actions (or lack of thereof), virtually nothing is known about the reverse: the influence of action-related parameters on the perception of visual illusions. Here, we tested a hypothesis that the response mode (that can be linked to action-relevant features) can affect perception of the Poggendorff (geometric) and of the Vanishing Point (motion) illusion. We explored the role of hand dominance (right dominant versus left non-dominant hand) and its interaction with stimulus spatial alignment (i.e., congruency between visual stimulus and the hand used for responses). Seventeen right-handed participants performed our tasks with their right and left hands, and the stimuli were presented in regular and mirror-reversed views. It turned out that the regular version of the Poggendorff display generates a stronger illusion compared to the mirror version, and that participants are less accurate and show more variability when they use their left hand in responding to the Vanishing Point. In summary, our results show that there is a marginal effect of hand precision in motion related illusions, which is absent for geometrical illusions. In the latter, attentional anisometry seems to play a greater role in generating the illusory effect. Taken together, our findings suggest that changes in the response mode (here: manual action-related parameters) do not necessarily affect illusion perception. Therefore, although intuitively speaking there should be at least unidirectional effects of perception on action, and possible interactions between the two systems, this simple study still suggests their relative independence, except for the case when the less skilled (non-dominant) hand and arguably more deliberate responses are used.

A review of abnormalities in the perception of visual illusions in schizophrenia

Specific abnormalities of vision in schizophrenia have been observed to affect high-level and some low-level integration mechanisms, suggesting that people with schizophrenia may experience anomalies across different stages in the visual system affecting either early or late processing or both. Here, we review the research into visual illusion perception in schizophrenia and the issues which previous research has faced. One general finding that emerged from the literature is that those with schizophrenia are mostly immune to the effects of high-level illusory displays, but this effect is not consistent across all low-level illusions. The present review suggests that this resistance is due to the weakening of top–down perceptual mechanisms and may be relevant to the understanding of symptoms of visual distortion rather than hallucinations as previously thought.

Real time electroencephalography analysis of brainwaves during perception of visual illusions

Real time electroencephalography analysis of brainwaves during perception of visual illusions

Dissociating early and late visual processing via the Ebbinghaus illusion

Visual perception is not instantaneous; the perceptual representation of our environment builds up over time. This can strongly affect our responses to visual stimuli. Here, we study the temporal dynamics of visual processing by analyzing the time course of priming effects induced by the well-known Ebbinghaus illusion. In slower responses, Ebbinghaus primes produce effects in accordance with their perceptual appearance. However, in fast responses, these effects are reversed. We argue that this dissociation originates from the difference between early feedforward-mediated gist of the scene processing and later feedback-mediated more elaborate processing. Indeed, our findings are well explained by the differences between low-frequency representations mediated by the fast magnocellular pathway and high-frequency representations mediated by the slower parvocellular pathway. Our results demonstrate the potentially dramatic effect of response speed on the perception of visual illusions specifically and on our actions in response to objects in our visual environment generally.

Perception of physiological visual illusions by individuals with schizophrenia

Visual perception by individuals with schizophrenia has not been extensively researched. The focus of this review is the perception of physiological visual illusions by patients with schizophrenia, a differences of perception reported in a small number of studies. Increased or decreased susceptibility of these patients to various illusions seems to be unconnected to the location of origin in the visual apparatus, which also takes place in illusions connected to other modalities. The susceptibility of patients with schizophrenia to haptic illusions has not yet been investigated, although the need for such investigation has been is clear. The emerging picture is that some individuals with schizophrenia are "resistant" to some of the illusions and are able to assess visual phenomena more "rationally", yet certain illusions (ex. Müller-Lyer's) are perceived more intensely. Disturbances in the perception of visual illusions have neither been classified as possible diagnostic indicators of a dangerous mental condition, nor included in the endophenotype of schizophrenia. Although the relevant data are sparse, the ability to replicate the results is limited, and the research model lacks a "gold standard", some preliminary conclusions may be drawn. There are indications that disturbances in visual perception are connected to the extent of disorganization, poor initial social functioning, poor prognosis, and the types of schizophrenia described as neurodevelopmental. Patients with schizophrenia usually fail to perceive those illusions that require volitional controlled attention, and show lack of sensitivity to the contrast between shape and background.

What can volumes reveal about human brain evolution? A framework for bridging behavioral, histometric, and volumetric perspectives.

An overall relationship between brain size and cognitive ability exists across primates. Can more specific information about neural function be gleaned from cortical area volumes? Numerous studies have found significant relationships between brain structures and behaviors. However, few studies have speculated about brain structure-function relationships from the microanatomical to the macroanatomical level. Here we address this problem in comparative neuroanatomy, where the functional relevance of overall brain size and the sizes of cortical regions have been poorly understood, by considering comparative psychology, with measures of visual acuity and the perception of visual illusions. We outline a model where the macroscopic size (volume or surface area) of a cortical region (such as the primary visual cortex, V1) is related to the microstructure of discrete brain regions. The hypothesis developed here is that an absolutely larger V1 can process more information with greater fidelity due to having more neurons to represent a field of space. This is the first time that the necessary comparative neuroanatomical research at the microstructural level has been brought to bear on the issue. The evidence suggests that as the size of V1 increases: the number of neurons increases, the neuron density decreases, and the density of neuronal connections increases. Thus, we describe how information about gross neuromorphology, using V1 as a model for the study of other cortical areas, may permit interpretations of cortical function.

The changes in perception of visual illusions during long-term isolation

The changes in perception of visual illusions during long-term isolation

Normal Susceptibility to Visual Illusions in Abnormal Development: Evidence from Williams Syndrome

The perception of visual illusions is a powerful diagnostic of implicit integration of global information. Many illusions occur when length, size, orientation, or luminance are misjudged because neighboring visuospatial information cannot be ignored. We asked if people with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetic disorder that results in severely impaired global visuospatial construction abilities, are also susceptible to the context of visual illusions. Remarkably, we found that illusions influenced WS individuals to the same degree as normal adults, although size discrimination was somewhat impaired in WS. Our results are evidence that illusions are a consequence of the brain's bias to implicitly integrate visual information, even in a population known to have difficulty in explicitly representing spatial relationships among objects. Moreover, these results suggest that implicit and non-implicit integration of spatial information have different vulnerabilities in abnormal development.

Sensory Adaptation in Exophoria and Exotropia

Introduction and PurposeTo investigate the effect of exodeviation in spatial visual attention using the illusory line motion paradigm.MethodsThe perception of visual illusion (i.e., illusory line motion) in the dominant and nondominant eyes was examined in 12 control subjects (under 5Δ), 12 exophoria patients (over 10Δ), and 12 exotropia patients. This paradigm presents two cues followed by an instantaneously presented horizontal bar, which the subjects perceive as bars that emanate from the two priming cues. These bars appear to grow toward the center of the visual field and continue to move inward until they collide with each other. In these experiments, the priming cues were asynchronously and simultaneously presented.ResultsIn the dominant eye, there was no correlation between the collision point shift and the ocular deviation, regardless of the stimulus patterns. However, a correlation was noted between the collision point shift and the ocular deviation in the nondominant eye when the second cue was presented in the nasal hemi-retina (P < 0.01). The shift of the collision point in exophoria and exotropia was greater than that seen in the control subjects (P < 0.01). When there was simultaneous presentation of the two cues in the nasal and temporal hemi-retina, there was a difference in the shift of the collision point in the exotropia patients, as compared to both the control subjects and exophoria patients (P < 0.05).ConclusionsCurrent findings strongly suggest that sensory adaptation in the nondominant eye compensates for visual stress with ocular deviation.

The perception of visual illusions in Williams Syndrome.

The perception of visual illusions in Williams Syndrome.

Perception of visual illusions with a sensory substitution system

Perception of visual illusions with a sensory substitution system

Perception of visual illusions by novice and longer-term meditators.

Undergraduate volunteers were divided into Control (n= 18) and Novice Meditators (n = 8). Residents of an American Zen monastery who volunteered as subjects, having 1 year or more experience in meditation, formed a Longer-term Meditation group. All subjects were tested over five trials on the Poggendorff and Müller-Lyer illusions and completed the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. Significant mean differences were found only for algebraic errors on the Poggendorff illusion, and significant decrement in illusion was noted for all subjects. A significant interaction was also found as the Longer-term Meditators showed less initial illusion and less dramatic decrement over five trials than the other groups. Finally, Longer-term Meditators exhibited significantly less anxiety and depression than the other two groups.

Different Effects of Nabilone and Cannabidiol on Binocular Depth Inversion in Man

The physiological and pathophysiological roles of the central nervous endogenous cannabinoid system are not completely understood, but still represent a challenge in basic neurobiological, cognitive, and psychiatric research. The system has been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Binocular depth inversion, an illusion of visual perception, provides a model of impaired perception during psychotic states. Using this model the effects of nabilone, a psychoactive synthetic 9-trans-ketocannabinoid, and of cannabidiol, the main natural component of herbal cannabis, and a combined application of both substances on binocular depth inversion and behavioural states were investigated in nine healthy male volunteers. The time course of the effects of both substances on binocular depth inversion was analysed after oral administration using three different groups of natural stimuli. A significant impairment of binocular depth perception was found when nabilone was administered, but combined application with cannabidiol revealed somewhat reduced effects on binocular depth inversion. The influence of psychoactive cannabinoids on this perceptual model and the role of the endogenous cannabinoid system in visual information processing are discussed.

Pro-psychotic change of binocular depth inversion by sleep deprivation

Binocular depth inversion represents an illusion of visual perception. Such inversion does not occur in all cases, especially when objects with a higher degree of familiarity (e.g. photographs of faces) are displayed. Cognitive factors are assumed to override the binocular disparity cues of stereopsis. We tested the hypothesis that during sleep deprivation the human CNS is unable to correct the implausible perceptual information. Measurements of binocular depth inversion in perception of 3D objects were taken in sleep-deprived medical staff and healthy volunteers. The binocular depth inversion scores were highly elevated in the sleep-deprived group in comparison to the healthy volunteers. The data demonstrate a strong impairment of binocular depth inversion after sleep deprivation and support the view that sleep deprivation may be accompanied by a disorganisation of the interaction between sensory input and generation of perceptual hypotheses.

The effect of unilateral brain lesions on perception of visual illusions

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.