Hermann Grid Case Study
Buta 1
When looking at the grid above, the black dots you see are fleeting and any individual dot will turn white as soon as you focus on it. As one might infer, the dots are actually all white.
This grid is referred to as the “Hermann Grid” and is somewhat of an unsettling optical illusion.
This grid is a good example of how our visual system processes contrast information.
To explain this trick our eyes and brain play on our perception, we must start with vision and how we as human beings take in visual stimuli. A prominent explanation and theory for why our brains see the black dots in the grid can be explained by what is referred to as “later inhibition”.
To begin, light enters the eye through the retina and converts the light into neural signals and send these signals on to the brain for visual recognition. This stimulation is transmitted as an electric signal down the optic track to regions of the brain which process the information from the receptors and turn into a visual perception. Just like in any optical illusion, the image we are receiving of the world through light receptors in our eyes is not exactly the same as the image reaching our brains. Our retina is partially composed of many small nerves (which function as receptors of light); these receptors are arranged in rows on the inside of …show more content…
your retina. Through a number of experiments and different research, it has been found that it is possible to illuminate a single receptor without illuminating its neighboring receptors. If you illuminate a single receptor you will get a significant response, when you add illumination to the first receptor’s neighbors, the response in that first receptor decreases. Therefore, illumination of receptors "inhibits" firing of neighboring receptors. This effect is called lateral inhibition because it is transmitted laterally across the retina. In the case of the Hermann grid, there is light coming from the four sides of the grid’s intersection, but from only two sides of a band going away from the intersection.
The region viewing the intersection is more inhibited than the region of the band going away. Because of this, the intersection appears darker than the other section. You see dark spots at the intersections of the white bands but not at the points away from the intersections. According to the Journal of Acoustical Society of America, lateral inhibition occurs primarily in visual processes, but also in tactile, auditory, and even olfactory processing. Concerning lateral inhibition and how
it correlates to particular parts of the brain, “cells that utilize lateral inhibition appear primarily in
Buta 2 the cerebral cortex and thalamus and make up lateral inhibitory networks (LINs).” Perception, thought, and consciousness are all examples of the many functions of these two regions of the brain which makes more sense that
When looking at the grid above, the black dots you see are fleeting and any individual dot will turn white as soon as you focus on it. As one might infer, the dots are actually all white.
This grid is referred to as the “Hermann Grid” and is somewhat of an unsettling optical illusion.
This grid is a good example of how our visual system processes contrast information.
To explain this trick our eyes and brain play on our perception, we must start with vision and how we as human beings take in visual stimuli. A prominent explanation and theory for why our brains see the black dots in the grid can be explained by what is referred to as “later inhibition”.
To begin, light enters the eye through the retina and converts the light into neural signals and send these signals on to the brain for visual recognition. This stimulation is transmitted as an electric signal down the optic track to regions of the brain which process the information from the receptors and turn into a visual perception. Just like in any optical illusion, the image we are receiving of the world through light receptors in our eyes is not exactly the same as the image reaching our brains. Our retina is partially composed of many small nerves (which function as receptors of light); these receptors are arranged in rows on the inside of …show more content…
your retina. Through a number of experiments and different research, it has been found that it is possible to illuminate a single receptor without illuminating its neighboring receptors. If you illuminate a single receptor you will get a significant response, when you add illumination to the first receptor’s neighbors, the response in that first receptor decreases. Therefore, illumination of receptors "inhibits" firing of neighboring receptors. This effect is called lateral inhibition because it is transmitted laterally across the retina. In the case of the Hermann grid, there is light coming from the four sides of the grid’s intersection, but from only two sides of a band going away from the intersection.
The region viewing the intersection is more inhibited than the region of the band going away. Because of this, the intersection appears darker than the other section. You see dark spots at the intersections of the white bands but not at the points away from the intersections. According to the Journal of Acoustical Society of America, lateral inhibition occurs primarily in visual processes, but also in tactile, auditory, and even olfactory processing. Concerning lateral inhibition and how
it correlates to particular parts of the brain, “cells that utilize lateral inhibition appear primarily in
Buta 2 the cerebral cortex and thalamus and make up lateral inhibitory networks (LINs).” Perception, thought, and consciousness are all examples of the many functions of these two regions of the brain which makes more sense that