This illusion is completely new to science, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The first author of the study is Bruno Laeng, who is a professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo.
– The expanding hole is a highly dynamic illusion. The round spot or shadow in the middle of the black hole evokes a marked impression of optical flow, as if the observer were moving forward into a hole or tunnel, he says in a press release.
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Affected by the experience
The illusion shows that the pupil’s light reflex, which controls the size of the pupil in anticipation of expected changes in light, depends on the perceived environment instead of the physical reality.
This means that the pupil’s reflexes depend on perception (the experience) and not necessarily on reality itself.
– Here we show that the pupil reacts to how we perceive light, even though this “light” is imaginary as in the illusion, and not just to the amount of light energy that actually enters the eye, says Laeng.
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If you look at the illusion of the “expanding hole”, then your pupil will expand in the same way as if it became darker around you, according to the professor.
One in seven did not see the illusion
The researchers also investigated how the color of the hole and the surrounding dots can affect how strongly we react to the illusion.
They did so by showing different variations of the image to 50 women and men with normal vision, and asked them to assess how strongly they perceived the illusion. At the same time, the researchers measured their eye movements and pupils.
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The illusion was most effective when the “hole” in the middle was black.
Among the participants, 14 per cent did not perceive any expansion of the spot in the middle. 20 percent did not see the illusion if the stain was stained.
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The researchers also found that black “holes” cause the pupils to dilate, while colored “holes” caused the pupils to narrow.
Do not know why
With the black holes, it turned out that the stronger the participants experienced the perception (perception) of the illusion, the more the pupils expanded.
It is still a mystery to scientists why some people do not seem to perceive the illusion of the growing hole.
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The results show that when the pupils react by expanding or contracting, it is not a fully automatic process such as when a photocell opens a door, where no information other than the actual amount of light affects the light receptor, according to the professor.
– Instead, the eye adapts to perceived – and even imaginary light – not just to physical energy. Future studies may reveal other kinds of physiological or physical changes that may shed light (!) On how illusions work, he says.
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