Most people use the terms “optical illusion” and “visual illusion” interchangeably, much like “fluid” and “liquid” or “sofa” and “couch” are synonyms. At first glance, this might be seemingly pedantic ...

Medical imaging experts are adept at solving common optical illusions, according to research from four UK universities, including the University of East Anglia. The correct analysis of medical images ...

This mind-bending optical illusion plays with perception and highlights how easily the brain can be fooled by visual cues.

Allen Institute researcher Jerome Lecoq points to one of the diagrams that was used in a study focusing on how the brain interprets optical illusions. (Allen Institute Photo / Erik Dinnel) Our brains ...

Lightness perception, the visual system’s ability to maintain a stable representation of surface reflectance despite varying illumination, has long intrigued researchers. Central to this field is the ...

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Thomas Mulligan examines the fascinating ways our brains construct a subjective reality by decoding the deceptive nature of ...

Optical illusions are great fun, and they fool virtually everyone. But have you ever wondered if you could train yourself to unsee these illusions? Our latest research suggests that you can. Optical ...

An example of the glare illusion used in the experiment. A previous study has reported that the central region surrounded by eight circles is perceived to be brighter in the left image (with a ...

Optical Illusion: Try to find the sneaky cat in under 15 seconds.

Chances are you’ve encountered some version of the “Ebbinghaus illusion,” in which a central circle appears to be smaller when encircled by larger circles and seems larger when surrounded by smaller ...

Duping a guppy is easier than duping a ring dove — at least when it comes to a classic optical illusion. In the Ebbinghaus illusion, two identical circles placed side by side are each framed by a set ...