We're all used to hearing thought that says that our thoughts and
emotions differ from one another, but most people assume that the way we
perceive the visual world is usually very similar to each other. However,
primary visual cortex is the area at the back of the brain that processes what
we see around us, are known to vary in size up to three times from one person
to another.
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at
University College London (UCL) showed for the first time that the size of this
area affects how we perceive our environment.
Dr. D. Samuel Schwarzkopf, Chen Song and Professor Geraint Rees
showed a series of optical illusions to 30 healthy volunteers. One of them is
the Ebbinghaus illusion which is a popular illusion in which two circles of the
same size are each surrounded by circular ornaments; a circle surrounded by
larger ornaments, and others with smaller ornaments. Most people will see the
first circle is smaller than the second.
In the second optical illusion that Ponzo illusion, the volunteers
were shown two circles of the same size that are placed into the image of a
tunnel. In this illusion, the circle placed at the rear of the tunnel appears
larger than that placed near the front.
By adapting these illusions, the researchers were able to show that
the volunteers saw the illusions differently. For example, some people see a
big difference in size of the two circles (albeit illusory), but others barely
saw any difference in size according to the vision.
By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers
were able to measure the surface area of the primary visual cortex in each
volunteer. They found a lot of variability in the size of this area.
Surprisingly, there is a strong relationship between the size of the area by
the rate at which the volunteers of the size illusion - the smaller the area,
the more pronounced the visual illusion.
"Our study is the first to show that the size of a person's
brain can predict how she perceives the visual environment," said Dr.
Schwarzkopf, as quoted by ScienceDaily (6/12/10).
"Illusions optical dazzle and excite our imagination, but
actually the illusions show us that how we see the world not directly
physically accurate, but more depends on our brain. The illusions as we use
affect sebesarapa great things looks; the illusions can fool us into believing
that two identical objects have different sizes.
"We show that how exactly things look depending on the size of
the brain necessary for vision. How much your brain to deceive you depends on
how much 'reality' that disregarded your brain for visual processing."
The study was published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
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