DNA Explainer: How does optical illusion work? Know science behind it, why brain gets tricked

Optical illusions are mind-bending and often confusions since the eyes at times see what the brain is not able to fully comprehend. While optical illusions may make you feel like there is something going on under the surface of the photo, it actually has a very simple science behind them.

An optical illusion is simply an image or a sight that tricks the eye and makes you think you can see something that you cannot. It means that the image you might be seeing may differ from reality, tricking your brain into seeing something which is not there.

Optical illusions, no matter how confusing or mind-bending, have a logical explanation behind them. It usually involves the light which bounces off the image or the change in the angle or the side of the person viewing the illustration.

How does optical illusion work?

The optical illusion tricks our brain into seeing what isn’t actually there. At times, optical illusions trick our brains into seeing motion when the image itself is still. Other times, it can alter the depth perception or the size of the specific image.

If you put a bike-spokes radial pattern behind two identical, straight horizontal lines, the lines will look warped, even though they are actually straight. In this specific illusion, the brain focuses on the centre point of the spokes and feels like the parallel lines are getting close to us and bending.

An optical illusion is most of the time the difference between reality and what the brain thinks it’s seeing. The information gathered by the eye is not perfectly comprehended by the brain due to the difference in light, perception, depth, or whichever segment comes into play during the illusion.

Most of the time, the optical illusion uses color, light, and patterns to create images that can be deceptive or misleading to our brain, tricking the brain into thinking that reality is something other than what we are seeing.

In simple words, the brain does not just create and understand its surroundings but also fills in the gaps to create your perception of the world. This means that when there is incomplete information or images, the brain may just be tricked into filling in the gaps and seeing a completely different thing.

While the true science behind optical illusions is still a mystery, this is the best explanation as to why illusions seem the way that they do.

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