Optical Illusions as Prediction: Changizi's Neural Lag and the Hollow Face

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

The room around you feels like raw reality, but this episode argues it is an edited, slightly delayed guess. Using illusions as a diagnostic tool, it follows Richard Gregory's three tiers. Physical illusions bend light before it reaches the eye, like the stick in water Ptolemy noted around 150 AD, or mountains that look close on a haze-free day. Physiological illusions come from tired hardware, like afterimages. Even textbooks slipped here: the Hermann grid's gray dots were blamed on lateral inhibition in the retina, until curving the lines made them vanish, pointing to edge detecting neurons in the visual cortex.

Cognitive illusions follow Hermann von Helmholtz's unconscious inferences: the flipping Necker cube, the Ponzo railway tracks, the impossible Penrose triangle and the Kanizsa triangle's invented edges. Neurobiologist Mark Changizi's neural lag hypothesis explains the Hering illusion: with about a tenth of a second of processing delay, the brain predicts the near future. The episode then turns to medicine, from oscillopsia and visual snow to schizophrenia patients who resist certain illusions and the rubber hand trick used with amputees.

Why atmospheric haze is a depth cue and clear dry air makes distant peaks look near
Gestalt completion as a survival tool for spotting a tiger half hidden in grass
People with schizophrenia are less likely to see a hollow mask as a convex face, linked to reduced top-down processing
Motion-induced blindness, where neurotypical viewers lose stationary dots that schizophrenia patients still see
Recent amputees respond strongly to the rubber hand illusion, and its principles help prosthetics feel like part of the body

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(16184)

The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow old...

9 Nov 18min

Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, ...

7 Nov 18min

Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaim...

7 Nov 49min

Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, ...

6 Nov 38min

Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, en...

5 Nov 45min

Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of t...

4 Nov 53min

Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

3 Nov 48min

Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

2 Nov 21min