Illusions confuse and bias the machinery in the brain that constructs our representations of the world, because they reveal a discrepancy between what we perceive and what is objectively out there in the world. But both illusions and accurate perceptions are governed by the same lawful perceptual processes. Despite the deceptive simplicity of illusions, there are no fully agreed theories about ...

Three experiments show differences in the plasticity of the contrast and assimilation portions of the Delboeuf, Ebbinghaus, and Ponzo illusions. Contrast illusions show decrement in illusion magnitude with free inspection, whereas assimilation illusions do not. A model to explain both the original distortion and the differential susceptibility of the two classes of illusion to decrement is offe...

Background The well-known rubber hand paradigm induces an illusion by having participants feel the touch applied to a fake hand. In parallel, the kinesthetic mirror illusion elicits illusions of movement by moving the reflection of a participant's arm. Experimental manipulation of sensory inputs leads to emergence of these multisensory illusions. There are strong conceptual similarities between...

The majority of optical illusions are the result of the specific context manipulation of the critical part of the stimuli. There are different examples of how context distorts figures in a way that they might seem different in size, shape, or shade. In the particular case of the Müller-Lyer (ML) illusion, the critical part of the stimulus is the central line (shaft), while the fins represent th...

Sexual selection studies normally compare signal strengths, but signal components and sensory processing may interact to create misleading or attention-capturing illusions. Visual illusions can be produced by altering object and scene geometry in ways that trick the viewer when seen from a particular direction. Male great bowerbirds actively maintain size-distance gradients of objects on their ...

BACKGROUND Though infections are associated with psychotic symptoms, whether or not subclinical inflammation is associated with hallucinations is not known in Parkinson's disease (PD). PURPOSE To investigate the association of illusions/hallucinations and plasma CRP levels in PD patients without symptomatic infections. METHODS PD patients not diagnosed as having infections were assessed for...

Abstract This article is based on Gibson’s “experimental phenomenology” and ecological perspective. It aims to develop Merleau-Ponty’s concept of “incarnate” by relating it the more general “illusion” in order apply digital environments immersive virtual realities. First all, we should clarify, from a phenomenological point view, notion “world.” Although “world” closely linked that “reality,” c...

Correlational selection favors combinations of traits and is a key element of many models of phenotypic and genetic evolution. Multiple regression techniques for measuring selection allow for the direct estimation of correlational selection gradients, yet few studies in natural populations have investigated this process. Color patterns and antipredator behaviors of snakes are thought to functio...

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 th...

This paper summarizes experimental support to spin-mediated consciousness theory from various sources including the results of our own. In doing so, we also provide explanations based on this theory to experimental phenomena such as out-of-body experience and sensed presence, quantum-like cognitive functions and optical illusions. Whether one agrees or not with the spin-mediated consciousness t...