How optical illusions trick your brain - Nathan S. Jacobs

错觉怎样欺骗你的大脑 - Nathan S. Jacobs

翻译人员: Catherine Gu 校对人员: Jenny Yang

Check this out:

看看：

Here's a grid, nothing special, just a basic grid, very grid-y.

一个网格，无特别之处，只是个网格，很网格的。

But look closer, into this white spot at the center

但仔细看看中心的这个白点，

where the two central vertical and horizontal lines intersect.

两条中心横竖垂直的线交叉在一起。

Look very closely. Notice anything funny about this spot?

看仔细点。注意到这点有什么奇怪的吗？

Yeah, nothing.

对，没有。

But keep looking. Get weird and stare at it.

可是再继续盯着看。

Now, keeping your gaze fixed on this white spot,

现在，盯着这个白点，

check what's happening in your peripheral vision.

用余光看一下在发生什么。

The other spots, are they still white? Or do they show weird flashes of grey?

其它的点还是白色的吗？还是它们显出怪异的灰色闪光？

Now look at this pan for baking muffins.

现在看这个松饼烤盘。

Oh, sorry, one of the cups is inverted. It pops up instead of dipping down.

哦，对不起，一个杯子倒过来，它凸了起来而不是凹下去。

Wait, no spin the pan. The other five are domed now?

等一下，现在转一下烤盘。现在其它五个杯凸起来了吗？

Whichever it is, this pan's defective.

不管是哪一个，这个烤盘是有缺陷的。

Here's a photo of Abraham Lincoln, and here's one upside down.

这是一张林肯的照片，还有一张是倒放的。

Nothing weird going on here.

没什么怪异的地方。

Wait, turn that upside down one right side up. What have they done to Abe?

等一下，把倒放的照片放正。亚伯怎么了？

Those are just three optical illusions, images that seem to trick us.

那只是三种视觉假象，似乎欺骗我们的图像。

How do they work?

它们是如何产生的？

Are magical things happening in the images themselves?

魔术般的事情发生在图像本身吗？

While we could certainly be sneaking flashes of grey

虽然我们当然可以把灰色闪光

into the peripheral white spots of our animated grid,

放入动画网格的外围白点，

first off, we promise we aren't.

首先，我们发誓我们不会那样做。

You'll see the same effect with a grid printed on a plain old piece of paper.

网格如果印在一张普通的纸上，你也会看到同样的效果。

In reality, this grid really is just a grid. But not to your brain's visual system.

其实，这个网格就只是个网格。但对你的大脑的视觉系统它不是。

Here's how it interprets the light information you call this grid.

大脑是这么理解从所谓的网格来的光和信息的：

The white intersections are surrounded by relatively more white on all four sides

白色交点四周有更多的白色包围着，

than any white point along a line segment.

比沿着任何一条线段的白点还多。

Your retinal ganglion cells notice that there is more white around the intersections

你的视网膜神经节细胞注意到交点周围有更多的白色。

because they are organized to increase contrast with lateral inhibition.

因为侧抑制使他们增加对比 。

Better contrast means it's easier to see the edge of something.

对比鲜明意味着较易看到东西的边缘。

And things are what your eyes and brain have evolved to see.

这些东西就是你的眼睛和大脑进化的结果。

Your retinal ganglion cells don't respond as much at the crossings

你的视网膜神经节细胞在交叉点没有过多的反应。

because there is more lateral inhibition for more white spots nearby

因为对附近更多的白点有更多的侧抑制，

compared to the lines, which are surrounded by black.

这是和黑色包围的线条相比。

This isn't just a defect in your eyes;

这不仅仅是你眼睛的缺陷；

if you can see, then optical illusions can trick you with your glasses on

如果你能看到，即使你戴着眼镜，

or with this paper or computer screen right up in your face.

或用这张纸， 或就在你面前的电脑屏幕，错觉会欺骗你，。

What optical illusions show us

错觉向我们显示的是

is the way your photo receptors and brain assemble visual information

你的光受体和大脑把可视信息

into the three-dimensional world you see around you,

组装成你周围看到的三维世界的方式，

where edges should get extra attention

三唯世界里应额外注意边

because things with edges can help you or kill you.

因为带边的东西既能帮你也会杀你。

Look at that muffin pan again. You know what causes confusion here?

再看那个松饼盘。你知道是什么引起了混乱吗？

Your brain's visual cortex operates on assumptions about the lighting of this image.

你大脑的视觉皮层对这个图像的照明在进行假设。

It expects light to come from a single source, shining down from above.

假设光是从上方照下来的单一光源。

And so these shading patterns could only have been caused by light shining down

所以这些阴影模式只能是由照下来的光引起的，

on the sloping sides of a dome, or the bottom of a hole.

是照在圆顶斜面上的光，还是照在凹下去的底部的光。

If we carefully recreate these clues by drawing shading patterns,

如果我们绘制阴影图案来仔细重建这些线索，

even on a flat piece of paper,

甚至在一张平纸上，

our brain reflexively creates the 3D concave or convex shape.

我们的大脑也会本能地创建三维凹或凸的形状。

Now for that creepy Lincoln upside down face.

现在就说林肯那张异样的上下颠倒的脸。

Faces trigger activity in areas of the brain

脸触发大脑区域的活动

that have specifically evolved to help us recognize faces.

专门进化帮我们识别人脸。

Like the fusiform face area and others in the occipital and temporal lobes.

像梭状回面孔区和枕叶和颞叶的其它区域。

It makes sense, too, we're very social animals

这也是有道理的，我们是非常社会化的动物

with highly complex ways of interacting with each other.

具有相互作用的极其复杂的方式。

When we see faces, we have to recognize they are faces

我们看脸的时候不得不认出它们是脸

and figure out what they're expressing very quickly.

并非常迅速地想出他们在表达什么。

And what we focus on most are the eyes and mouth.

我们注意最多的是脸和嘴。

That's how we figure out if someone is mad at us or wants to be our friend.

我们就是这样判断出人是对我们生气了还是想和我们做朋友。

In the upside down Lincoln face,

林肯那张上下颠倒的脸，

the eyes and mouth were actually right side up,

实际上眼睛和嘴是右面在上，

so you didn't notice anything was off.

所以，你没注意到少了什么。

But when we flipped the whole image over, the most important parts of the face,

但当我们把整个图像翻转过来，脸最重要的部分，

the eyes and mouth, were now upside down, and you realized something fishy was up.

眼睛和嘴，现在上下颠倒了，所以你意识到有点不对劲。

You realized your brain had taken a short cut and missed something.

你意识到大脑走了捷径而错过了什么。

But your brain wasn't really being lazy, it's just very busy.

但你的大脑不是真犯懒， 只是很忙而已。

So it spends cognitive energy as efficiently as possible,

所以大脑尽可能高效地使用认知力，

using assumptions about visual information to create a tailored, edited vision of the world.

利用有关视觉信息的假设来创造一个量身定做的ˎ编辑了的世界景象。

Imagine your brain calling out these edits on the fly:

想象一下你的大脑匆忙调出这些编辑：

"Okay, those squares could be objects.

“好了，那些方块儿可能是物体。

Let's enhance that black-white contrast on the sides with lateral inhibition.

用侧抑制在两侧让我们增强黑白对比。

Darken those corners!

使那些角落变暗！

Dark grey fading into light grey?

深灰色褪成了浅灰色吗？

Assume overhead sunlight falling on a sloping curve. Next!

假设上面的阳光落在一条倾斜的曲线上。接着！

Those eyes look like most eyes I've seen before, nothing weird going on here."

那些眼睛看上去像我以前看见的大部分眼睛，没有什么奇怪的。

See? Our visual tricks have revealed your brain's job

看见了？我们视觉上的幻觉揭示了我们大脑的工作

as a busy director of 3D animation in a studio inside your skull,

它仿佛是你的脑壳工作室里一个忙碌的三维动画导演，

allocating cognitive energy and constructing a world on the fly

经常但并不总是用自身具有的一些手法

with tried and mostly -- but not always -- true tricks of its own.

分配认知能量并快速构建一个世界