All Perception is Fundamentally an Illusion

Most people who stare at the image below will believe the dark oval in the middle is growing larger. But, believe it or not, it is just an illusion – a static image.

According to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, this illusion has something to teach us about how our brains and eyes collaborate to see the world. Researchers tested the illusion on 50 men and women with normal vision and found that those participants who had eyes with the strongest pupil dilation response had the greatest response to the illusion; while those with poor dilation response could not see it.

The pupils in the human eye are designed to automatically adjust to the surrounding light, dilating when it is dark so they can capture more light, and constricting when it is bright to prevent overexposure. Even though the hole in this illusion is not darkening, the perception or expectation in our mind that it should be darkening is enough to make our pupils respond.

Bruno Laeng, a psychology professor at the University of Oslo and an author of the study, says: “There is no reason that the pupil should change [while looking at this image], because nothing is changing in the viewers world, but something clearly has changed inside the mind.”

The researchers hypothesize that the illusion is deceiving because the gradient on the central hole makes it look to the viewer as if they are entering a dark hole or tunnel, which prompts the participants’ pupils to dilate. Our brains are making assumptions about what it sees based on past experience and is trying to predict and prepare our senses for what it thinks will happen next.

It takes time for light to reach our sensory organs and send the image to our brain. The brain then takes more time to process the image, make sense of it, and decide what actions to take based on the collected information. By the time our brain catches up with the present, time has already moved forward, and the user’s environment has most likely changed.

To minimize this image collection and processing delay, the brain may be constantly trying to predict a little bit into the future so that it can better perceive the present. Being fooled by this expanding hole illusion is not a flaw of the human species, but a feature. It is most likely built up from evolutionary history to help humanity survive.

The information we get from our senses is spotty and incomplete, so the brain has evolved over time to try to guess what is happening in the uncertain and ever-changing world – and to make decisions based on what is most likely to happen next.

People who possessed brains with the best ability to adapt and predict what is happening at any given moment most likely had an advantage over those that lacked the capacity to adapt. When the illusion image is communicated to the brain, it anticipates that the body will soon be entering a dark place and it responds by telling the pupils to begin dilating (so the body will be able to react sooner in case there is danger lurking inside that black hole).

Researchers tell us that everything we perceive is inconsistent with the physical reality of the world. It is not just that the information taken in by our senses can be misunderstood, it is also that there is a universe of information available in the physical world that is imperceptible to the human senses.

Consider light itself. The light our human eyes can detect is only a sliver of the total amount of light that’s out there. The 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum we can see is referred to as visible light, but the other 99.9% percent of the spectrum consisting of radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, ultraviolet rays, X-rays and gamma rays are all undetectable by our eyes.

Electromagnetic Light Spectrum

Humans have cone-shaped cells in our eyes that act as receivers specifically tuned to the wavelengths in the narrow visible light band of the spectrum. Other portions of the spectrum have wavelengths too large or too small and energetic for the biological limitations of our perception.

Evolution has not endowed us with the ability to see beyond the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum; although it is possible to feel infrared radiation as heat and employ other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum for practical uses, such as X-Ray medical imaging.

But we carry on with our lives, oblivious to the huge spectrum of electromagnetic waves present all around us. Humans have managed to survive and reproduce despite our limited view. It’s a good thing that visible light was adequate to help our ancestors detect predators that would do them harm.

But imagine if our eyes were able to detect other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum — our universe would be unrecognizable. We could glean so much more visual information if we were able to see in the radio, infrared or even X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Bees and butterflies are examples of organisms that can detect Ultraviolet radiation. Some flowers have special markings that can only be seen in UV light. Bee and Butterfly eyes are able to view this electromagnetic radiation like lights on an airport runway, to find their way to the flower’s nectar. Snakes have special sensory organs on the front of their heads that let them ‘see’ infrared waves, which they put to use with particular effectiveness when hunting for warm-blooded prey.

Consider our sense of sound. Humans can detect sounds in a frequency range from about 20 Hz to 20 kHz, though the upper limit in average adults is closer to 15–17 kHz (because humans lose some high-frequency sensitivity as they mature).

That range of sounds allows humans to hear many of the sounds produced in nature, but not all. Any frequency that is below the human range is known as infrasound. It is so low that it may be detected only by a creature with big ears, such as an Elephant or by specialized instruments designed by scientists to detect the low frequency sounds that precede avalanches and earthquakes. Any frequency that is above the human frequency range is known as ultrasound. Bats and Dolphins use ultrasound frequencies as high as 200,000 Hz to help them navigate via echolocation.

Most dogs can hear sound frequencies as high as 47,000 to 65,000 Hz which is far too high-pitched for humans to hear. That is why dogs can be trained to detect when their owner is about to experience a seizure. Dogs ears are also much more sensitive to loud sounds than ours, which is probably why fireworks, thunderstorms and vacuum cleaners send them scurrying for cover.

Consider our sense of smell. Humans have 396 olfactory receptors which are employed to help us pick up scents. Almost all animals, however, have a larger number of olfactory receptors than humans (rabbits have 768 olfactory receptors) which provides them with an excellent ability to smell. 

Among the animals with the greatest sense of smell are bears whose sense of smell is 300 times better than humans and is capable of detecting a deceased animal from up to 20 miles away; elephants who can smell water sources from up to 12 miles away; sharks who can smell the presence of a drop of blood in almost 100 liters of water; and bloodhounds whose sense of smell is 2,100 times better than that of a human’s and can detect trace amounts of drugs and explosives inside packages.

When you consider all these blind spots in our senses, it is obvious that humans live in a world in which many sights, sounds and smells exist that are beyond the ability of our limited senses to detect; and those that we can detect can be compromised by our overactive minds. It’s enough to make you think that all human perception is, fundamentally, just an illusion; or as Bob Dylan keenly observed “All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie“.

It could well be that we are each living in our own virtual reality world, bound by the limitations of our physical senses and the tricks employed by our minds. Dr Laeng believes we each do live in a virtual reality world. Much of what we see is an illusion, but we are not really being tricked – he believes the visual illusions help to reveal the mismatches between what our eyes see and what our mind’s eye thinks is happening.

So what lessons can we take away about how to live our lives knowing the limits of our senses and the tendency of our brains to trick us into seeing what it wants us to see.

One lesson is that we should remind ourselves that things are not always what they appear. It is possible for two people to witness the same event but still give contradictory descriptions of what they saw; even though they are certain their description of events are true. Knowing that our eyes are susceptible to being tricked should make the criminal justice system wary of judging guilt based solely on the testimony of eye-witnesses.

Another lesson is to be careful of letting our minds be swayed by our pre-conceived biases and political opinions. If we each live in our own virtual worlds then we need to be careful of falling into the trap of accepting information that matches our biases and opinions while discarding facts that don’t. If more people were careful to seek out an objective, agreed-upon, reality then maybe there would be less disagreement and discord in today’s society.

Finally, we should all be humbled and filled with wonder knowing that what our senses reveal to us is only a small portion of the great wide-world we live in. There is a whole universe out there beyond our human senses – a twilight zone if you will, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of the mind, one where there is so much more for us to discover.

Reason without compassion and empathy leads to a moral void

I remember a moment from my past when my oldest daughter was about four years old; I took her and her friend Nicole to their ballet class, and after that to the city library so we could pick out some books.

As I was checking out the books, some young boy apparently had grabbed Nicole by the neck and pushed her out of his way. I turned around and saw the boy leaving with  his mother just as Nicole began to cry. I tried to comfort her the best I could but was not having much success.

I stood up to collect the books that I had left on the counter and when I turned back I noticed that my daughter had come over to hug and console Nicole, saying to her “It’s all right Nicole, we’ll go home and have some lunch now OK – Don’t cry“. Nicole stopped crying immediately and the two small girls walked hand in hand back to the car.

It was a touching and deeply fulfilling moment for me, as it would be for most parents I suppose, the first time you observe a child that you have loved and nurtured, nurture somebody else. Events of that sort, where you are present to witness your child demonstrate the qualities of compassion and empathy for another person, come along rarely in life to reassure parents that they are doing something right and that their children will turn out to be decent human beings.

This memory from 30 years ago popped into my mind this past week as I watched and listened to the sad saga of the immigrant children being forcibly separated from their parents due to sudden changes in the US immigration policy.

How can it be I wondered that a policy that breaks up families – which is contrary to everything in life that we hold sacred and holy – was conceived, ordered into being, approved by the Justice Dept and implemented and enforced by the Immigration authorities?

The first reaction is to brand all those involved with this malevolent policy as evil because it was obvious to the majority of the country that the people who supported this policy lacked empathy and basic compassion – not only for the families who were fleeing poverty and violence, but especially for the innocent children who were being punished through no fault of their own.

Compassion is defined as a feeling of concern for the suffering of others. Psychiatric  studies have found that psychopaths and those suffering from narcissism are often incapable of feeling empathy or compassion for someone else. It would be dangerous and inaccurate, however, to just label anyone who supported this policy as a narcissist or a psychopath. Psychiatrists list these other reasons that can cause people to harden their hearts.

• The emotion of anger can block off a person’s capacity to feel warmth or mercy for those experiencing troubles and difficulties. It is likely that some people lack empathy for the families being split apart simply because they are very angry at immigrants who are trying to enter this country illegally. They could never imagine themselves trying to flee illegally to a different country and their anger at those who would prevents them from putting themselves in the other person’s shoes.
• Some people prefer to remain distant as a sort of protection mechanism. They fear that if they get too close or become too involved in an emotional issue then they will be vulnerable to pain. For these people avoidance is a primary objective and out-of-sight out-of-mind is their philosophy for dealing with life’s difficult events.
• Some have difficulties identifying and relating to others and can only really understand and empathize with things that they have experienced personally. Most people in the United States are not hungry or facing violence, therefore it is difficult for them to show compassion for those who are experiencing such traumas.
• Finally, some people are inclined to fear people that are not like them. They de-humanize immigrants who do not look like them or speak their language and reason that if they are allowed to enter the country they will take away their jobs, harm their families and perform criminal acts.

I suspect that it was a combination of all these factors that resulted in our government leaders and agencies creating and enforcing such a heartless policy. It’s hard to believe there could have been anyone at the table speaking out with compassion and empathy  while these immigration policy decisions were being made.

Karen Armstrong, a British author and former Catholic religious sister used the $100,000 TED prize she won in 2008 to help create a charitable organization called the Charter for Compassion, which urges the peoples of the world to embrace the core value of compassion and identifies shared moral priorities across religious traditions, in order to foster global understanding and a peaceful world.

Armstrong claimed in her TED talk that if reason is not tempered by compassion and empathy it leads men and women into a moral void. That is exactly what appeared to happen in this case. In an effort to achieve their broader immigration policy goals, and to force their opponents to come to the bargaining table, the Trump Administration created a moral disaster by failing to temper their zero tolerance policy with compassion and empathy.

I was heartened to see that the policy was met with outrage across the world and that prominent religious leaders and ethics experts condemned the policy and spoke out against the immorality of separating immigrant children from their parents.

This event should be a life lesson for this administration and for any of us who are involved in making decisions that have the power to cause unnecessary suffering in others. We cannot turn a blind eye to the immoral consequences of our decisions. We must temper our reasoning with empathy and compassion if we wish to overcome selfishness and make decisions that will lead to the creation of just and peaceful communities.

Don’t let your ‘don’t voice’ dominate your thoughts

Growing up a die hard Red Sox fan and living in the Boston area during the 1990’s I can remember the frustration and disappointment I felt in seeing my beloved home team bested on the field every year by the hated New York Yankee’s baseball team.

So I will admit that it secretly gave me pleasure when the Yankee’s  star second baseman at the time, Chuck Knoblauch, became afflicted with a serious case of a malady known as the yips.

Yips is the name given to describe an event when an athlete temporarily loses control of their fine motor skills. The condition occurs suddenly as twitches, staggers, jitters and jerks of the muscles when athletes are attempting to perform a single precise and well-timed action (such as putting a golf ball or throwing a baseball).

The causes of the condition are poorly understood and there is no known therapy that guarantees a cure. Athletes affected by the yips sometimes recover their ability, but many are forced to abandon their sport because they become unable to produce the basic motions that are required to play their game.

The Mayo Clinic says the condition can be psychological, neurological, or a combination of both. Most doctors believe that the unwanted muscle spasms are caused by performance anxiety or by a neurological dysfunction called focal dystonia – caused by the over-training of muscle groups that execute a repetitive action.

In the case of Chuck Knoblauch, his yips started when he suddenly began struggling to throw the baseball accurately to first base. The throw from the 2nd base position to 1st base is considered the shortest and easiest in baseball, yet for some reason in 1999 Chuck Knoblauch lost his ability to consistently throw the ball accurately to his 1st baseman – who was standing a mere 40 feet away from him.

That year he committed a record 26 errors – four of the errors came in a single game, one throw so bad that the ball sailed over the 1st baseman’s head and hit a mother in the face who was sitting in the grandstands. The Yankees ultimately had to move Chuck Knoblauch to the Left Field position because he was unable to overcome the yips he experienced while manning 2nd Base.

Jeff Bond, a psychologist who studies the yips at the Australian Institute of Sports, says the yips are more complex and difficult to treat than almost any physical injury. He believes that: “Within each of us there resides two key motivations: one is the motivation to achieve success and the other is the motivation to avoid failure. We all have both; and at different times, and for different reasons, one voice will speak a lot louder than the other.”

He calls the yip voice the “don’t voice”; that voice inside your head motivating you to avoid failure. The yips are more prevalent in sports like baseball, golf and tennis because those sports have a lot of “think time” and provide a greater opportunity for that “don’t voice” to boom out loudly in the athlete’s head. An athlete in those sports has a long time to think about their next shot and to dwell on the possibility of failure – which can lead to paralysis and self-doubt when the time comes to actually perform.

While I initially derived pleasure watching Chuck Knoblauch struggle with his yips – and I mocked his inability to make such simple throws – it was an encounter with the yips that occurred in my own life that helped me to re-examine my position about those struggling with this affliction and to view them with much more sympathy and compassion.

It happened in my 30’s when I joined a dart team with some of my co-workers. Being part of the nine member team gave me an opportunity to get out and socialize with friends every Tuesday night and to have fun testing my dart throwing skills against other dart throwers in the region.

Our team was initially placed in the beginners division but over the course of several years we gradually moved up to the A division as our skills improved and as we won division tournaments. I found that as the level of competition increased, so did the pressure. At the highest level of competition there is very little margin for error because making one or two poor throws during a match could mean the difference between winning and losing.

To further magnify those feelings of pressure all of the teammates and opponents would gather around the board watching each match with great interest and trying to cheer their side on to victory. What had started out as a relaxing fun activity with my friends had turned into a high stakes battle requiring intense focus.

To cope with the increasing psychological pressure of the games, I worked on different strategies. First I focused on my throwing mechanics, endeavoring to use the same stance and consistent throwing motion each time so as to eliminate variables in my delivery that could cause variation.

The goal was to become so comfortable and practiced with my throwing mechanics that my throws would become automatic during the match, leaving my mind free to focus only on the dart board and the dart target.

Another strategy I employed was to make sure my alcohol level content was properly “calibrated”. My team would joke about this asking if anyone needed additional “aiming fluid” prior to the start of the match. I found that the alcohol did serve to reduce the pre-game jitters and helped me to worry less about my fear of failure. Gauging the proper amount of “aiming fluid” for optimum performance however was a challenge as there were more than one occasions when it was obvious that my over-indulgence of aiming fluid led to sub-par performances.

Despite these coping strategies, I vividly remember several instances that came up during important dart matches in my last season when I came down with what I can only describe as the yips.

The first episode occurred at an important moment during a key match when the outcome was in doubt and I had a chance to win the game. I stepped up to the line and extended my right arm with the dart in my hand getting ready to start my throwing motion.

Suddenly, my hand started trembling and I couldn’t quiet it. I stepped off the line and took a deep breath. When I returned to the line I was able to steady my hand, but at the completion of my throwing motion my fingers failed to obey my brain and release the dart when they were commanded. The dart flew wildly off course – not even hitting the dart board.

The errant throw really shook my confidence because it was rare for me to miss the target I was aiming at by more than an inch. It was inconceivable to me that I had just thrown a dart that missed the target by more than 2 feet.

I stepped off the line again, my teammates trying to encourage me. As I transferred my second dart into my throwing hand and held it between my fingers, I remember looking down and thinking how foreign it felt in my hand at that moment. Even though I had perfected my throwing mechanics in hundreds of practice and game events it felt like I was holding a dart for the first time.

I stepped to the line again, but that “don’t voice” and fear of failure was now booming loudly in my head. Instead of concentrating on the target that I was trying to hit to win the game, my mind was thinking instead about my throwing mechanics, how I was embarrassing myself and how I was letting my teammates down. The voice in my head had become my own worst enemy.

My second and third darts were not as wild, but not surprisingly given the state of my mind, were still way off target. Honestly, I was relieved when my opponent promptly stepped up to the line after my turn and won the game. I did not feel at that moment in time that I was capable of winning the game. My motivation to avoid failure far exceeded my motivation to achieve success.

At the completion of the season I decided to quit the dart team but it wasn’t because of the dart yips episodes. By that time I had worked on other techniques to help minimize their effect on me when I felt them coming on.

My motivation for retiring came when I decided that it was more important and better for me to spend my time at home on Tuesdays with my wife and young family; rather than staying out late, hanging out in seedy bars, drinking too much and being unproductive every Wednesday because I was tired and hung over from the night before. It is a decision I never looked back and regretted.

Nor do I regret the brief time I spent immersed in that world of competitive dart tournaments – because I learned some valuable life lessons from the experience. I learned techniques that I could use to help me perform under pressure; I learned not to let my motivation to avoid failure overwhelm me and get in the way of me reaching out to achieve success; and I learned that there is no place more important than home.

Last of all, I learned not to take pleasure in other people’s misfortunes – regardless of whether they are friend or foe. Life is hard enough after all, and making life harder for people by being mean-spirited ends up diminishing us all.