Unveiling the Mind-Bending Mystery of Optical Illusions

Scientists have made progress in understanding the mind-bending secrets of optical illusions that deceive the brain into perceiving incorrect colors. These "simultaneous contrast illusions" manipulate our perception by altering the brightness or color of the background, tricking us into seeing different colors in the foreground. A new computer model called the "spatiochromatic bandwidth limited model" was used to mimic human vision and analyze over 50 illusions. The model consistently identified the wrong colors, suggesting that these illusions rely on basic-level neural processing rather than higher-order visual processing or past experiences. This supports the bottom-up hypothesis and confirms that illusions can be explained by a single layer of neurons.