Professor of Vision Science George Mather will be presenting some of his interesting research on illusions at State of Mind. His primary research interests are in the perception of visual movement and of visual art. Accurate and rapid detection of image motion is vital for survival, and George’s research on motion aims to uncover the specialized neural circuits in the brain which mediate our ability to detect movement. This knowledge can be exploited to trick the brain into signaling movement when none is present, leading to illusions of motion. Visual art often attempts to recreate a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional picture plane. It does this by means of pictorial cues that indicate depth and distance. These cues can also be exploited to reveal the hidden inferences which underlie our ability to see depth and distance.
