An international team, led by the Vision Centre in Australia, says that the information provided by people's visual sensing systems is often distorted, unreliable and subject to illusion.
"We tend to regard what we see as 'the real world'. In fact a lot of it is distortion, and it is occurring in the early processing of the brain, before consciousness takes over," said team leader Dr Isabelle Mareschal.
He added: "Our latest work shows that the cells of the primary visual cortex create small distortions, which they then pass on to the higher levels of the brain, to interpret as best it can."
A common example of this that is often exploited by artists and designers is known as the tilt illusion where perfectly vertical lines appear tilted because they are placed on an oriented background, say the researchers.
For their study, the researchers analysed a series of groundbreaking experiments in which they trace the origins of the tilt illusion to the cells of the primary visual cortex -- the first stage of vision processing, before the conscious mind takes over. (MORE) PTI MOT
