Visual Perception and Illusions

Abstract

To visually perceive a work of art, or for that matter, any object, the brain needs information. This information enters the eye in the form of light. The eye’s optical system focuses this light, producing images of objects in our environment on the retina. Receptors in the retina convert light into electrical impulses that are carried to the brain along neural pathways. Perception of the external world occurs when electrical signals are processed in the brain. In the end, it’s the brain’s business to make sense of sensation.

Deceptions of the senses are the truths of perception.

—J. E. Purkinje, psychologist