electrical impulses: signals that travel through nerves in the body or a wire, such as an electric fenceĬorners or curves? It’s an optical illusion.

interpret: understand, make sense of, decipher.

This story was first published on The Sun and is republished here with permission.

It’s out brain’s way of making clear to us that there could be possible danger.ĭifferent colours and light and dark can make the same sized objects look different or make patterned images look like they’re spinning. Our brains can warp* straight lines if an object in the middle of them looks like it’s moving.

Media_camera When you look at an object what you’re really seeing is the light that bounced off it and then entered your eye. This light is converted into electrical impulses* that your brain then turns into an image. When you look at an object what you’re really seeing is the light that bounced off it and then entered your eye. That way you can have quicker reaction times if the object you’re looking at looks dangerous. It can be really difficult for your brain to interpret* everything at once so it will often take shortcuts and give you a simplified version of what you see, for instance, by changing the actual information coming in so what we think we see is more like what you’re used to seeing. Our brain is constantly trying to make sense of the world at the quickest pace it can despite the world being in 3D and the images on our retinas - the back surface of your eyeballs that receive light - being in 2D. It is our brains that play the key role in creating images and trying to protect us from the potential* threats around us. Optical illusions make more sense when you learn that our eyes have very little to do with what we see.

Media_camera A similar illusion occurs when you stare at this black and white image of the Queen.

How does the light bulb work