20.04.2016The Brain sees more than the eye

Prof. Dr. med. Ulf Eysel, Department of Neurophysiology, Medical Faculty, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

The eye is a miracle of nature, in which physical optics and neurons perform tasks that are often compared to a camera. In comparison the eye fares moderately well; only the interaction between eye and brain creates the good pictures we see. The brain improves the eye’s mistakes and adapts the visual input to our surroundings. In this way, our internal image of the world is to some extent “better” than the underlying physical “reality”. These mechanisms normally result in a trustworthy visual perception that is useful for our behaviour. At the same time, we become susceptible to optical illusions. On the one hand, they are a fun and entertaining phenomenon, on the other, they illustrate vividly why our sense of vision is much more powerful than a “brainless” camera.

Learn more about our visual sense and what optical illusion tell us about it in the Videocast of Prof. Dr. Eysel’s talk at the Brain Day 2012: