Stereograms: miracles or optical illusions? Brain training, tests All the dots in this photo are white, but some look black.

M. BACHENIN: Olga, hello! Welcome!

O. IVASHKINA: Good evening!

M.B.: Today we will talk about perception and illusions of perception of the world around us, that is, about what we see, what we hear and, perhaps, what we feel. First of all, of course, about some single whole, which is and what can be called perception. If we talk about illusions right away. Olga, what can be called an illusion of human perception in the world around him?

O.I.: In principle, the illusion of human perception can be called such a feeling when we see something, hear something, somehow feel something that is objectively not actually there, and we can control it, write something down, take a photograph.

M.B.: That is, to have some standard for yourself.

O.I.: Yes, we can know about it, but for some reason we are mistaken and perceive something wrong.

M.B.: What about examples?

O.I.: There are a bunch of optical illusions, you can find them all on the Internet by searching “optical illusions”, when, for example, we see two identical squares of the same color as different colors due to a certain added thing. When we see lines of the same length due to the fact that they are located differently, in perspective they are of different lengths: one is shorter, one is longer.

M.B.: But this is all created by human hands. I am now in the Life studio, and I can, for example, see not three microphones on the side of the table where you are sitting now, but four. Is this possible?

O.I.: This is possible if something goes wrong.

M.B.: With my eyes, you mean?

O.I.: With the eyes or with the parts of the brain that process this visual information for us. It is clear that you may begin to see double temporarily for some reason.

M.B.: But this is all unhealthy. And sometimes we understand that this cannot be so. You also know this expression: “I don’t believe my eyes.” That is, we understand that it should be this way and no other way, but in reality it happens differently. Or, on the contrary, it happens just differently, or rather, it happens the way it should be, but we perceive it differently. How can this be explained from a scientific point of view?

O.I.: If you place two gray squares next to each other, they will be absolutely identical, we can check this, the same gray color, but if you create the effect of lighting one and darkening the other (one can imagine), then the entire square, which seems illuminated to us, will look much lighter, because that we know that illuminated objects are lighter and brighter.

M.B.: Lighter, yes.

O.I.: And a darkened square will look darker and grayer, because we know that dark objects, that is, objects on which a shadow falls, are much darker.

M.B.: This is what we know. And what do we see in this?

O.I.: That's how we see it. As we know, so we see, but in fact, if we remove this darkening and lightening, which is artificially applied to the picture, we will see absolutely identical gray squares.

M.B.: And at the same time we remain healthy.

O.I.: Yes. All our lives we have seen that the shadow is darker, the light is lighter, everything is fine.

M.B.: You constantly appeal to the fact that we know that we have accumulated such experience. Can we say that this experience sometimes lets us down?

O.I.: In most cases, it does not let us down, because we encounter this state of affairs much more often than these optical illusions, as in the picture. This means that all our behavior, all our recognition, perception, whatever, must be adaptive. This means that most of our life is adaptive, but here there was a mistake.

M.B.: Yes, that's understandable. Then what comes first - our knowledge and experience, which has been accumulated and tells us how it should be, or the visual signal that we receive and which is sent to the brain?

O.I.: Both. We receive something, something is compared.

M.B.: What is stronger, what volume is greater? What do neuroscientists say? I look now and see a man in front of me. In realizing this, what is more important - my experience, what do I know: this is what a person looks like, or the fact that I see him?

O.I.: Both. If this person's mouth and eyes are removed, and the mouth and eyes are generally the most important thing for our perception of faces. The perception of faces is very important for humans, because we evolutionarily needed to learn to recognize each other’s emotions, negotiate, and interact socially. But most of the emotions are achieved precisely through changes in the eyes and lips. So there are all these things that if you turn the face upside down, it will be much more difficult to recognize the emotion that is depicted there or what kind of person is there.

M.B.: That is, in this case, experience will interfere with us? The eyes will continue to work for us, but experience is already against us. Habit - I now equate habit with experience.

O.I.: Not exactly a habit, but it was so important to look exactly here, and therefore these areas of the brain have developed and play a more important function.

M.B.: And if we leave the two main ones - the mouth and eyes, and remove the nose, then what remains is the perception of a person?

O.I.: If we remove the eyes and mouth, then we can understand that this is a person, it will just take more time, distinguishing one from the other will be much more difficult than if with eyes and mouth.

M.B.: The brain will slow down and take more time to process information.

O.I.: Yes. When we talk about face perception, there are two big systems. One system recognizes them very quickly - eyes, mouth, everything is in place, great, let's move on, you can continue to look at emotions, noses. And the other is when something went wrong. For example, there are famous fruit paintings where faces are created from fruits and vegetables. And we recognize faces in them, everything is fine, but people who have a lesion in a place like the fusiform gyrus, they can recognize, if you show them you or me, they recognize that it is a person. But they do not recognize a face among this pile of fruits and vegetables, because this system of additional recognition by elements is disrupted.

M.B.: Was everything normal with the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s perception of the world around him?

O.I.: Yes.

M.B.: This is also kind of unconventional, and our life experience does not work for us here - to make a person out of fruit! You see individual fruits and flowers, other plants, and at the same time you see a person.

O.I.: We can't say for sure.

M.B.: Didn't you think he was crazy?

O.I.: I didn't count. It seems to me that, in principle, everything is fine.

M.B.: No, his paintings are beautiful! And he is unique in his own way. Okay, do we see everything that surrounds us, or only what we need? Understand the phrase “what we need” correctly. That is, here I put the brain first. See, I still separate the brain and myself, right? And you, scientists, do not separate this. Do we only see what we need?

O.I.: We first see what is most important to us. Evolutionarily, it was very important for all of us to notice movement, so as not to miss a predator or so as not to miss our prey when hunting.

M.B.: Or catch up with the female.

O.I.: Yes. And therefore, our entire visual system reacts to movement much better, and we see it forward. But, of course, we also see static objects.

M.B.: Fine. That is, you can come up with something like this: let’s say, if I need to hide, it’s better for me not to run away, but to somehow merge with something (but now I added a little imagination), stand statically if a person is in a hurry looking for me or someone Whatever it was, it’s more likely that he won’t notice me, because I’ll be static.

O.I.: It depends. If you're wearing a neon jacket...

M.B.: No, that's understandable. I mean if I merge with the wall.

O.I.: Animals (mice, for example) have two main strategies when faced with some kind of danger. One is to run away quickly, but sometimes there are situations when it is clear that now you will have time to run away and hide there.

M.B.: Is this clear to mice?

O.I.: They can evaluate it. And the second strategy is to freeze. And even if the substrate is not the most suitable, you are a white mouse in a black chamber, but in our experiments, if you scare them, they freeze.

M.B.: Is it their instincts?

O.I.: They have two main forms of behavior when in danger - to run and freeze. And in our experiments, they know that the chamber is closed, there is nowhere to run, they have already examined it and checked it, so they freeze, trying to avoid danger in this way. This would be natural for them in their natural environment.

M.B.: To the question of who decides what we need, we can answer that these are our instincts, based on our (if we talk about people) knowledge? And more tasks. For example, what are we looking for?

O.I.: We have pre-existing behaviors. Let's not call them instincts; they are simply evolutionarily developed forms of behavior. Some of them must further develop in childhood as the brain and person mature. The simplest forms of behavior always exist, this includes coughing, vomiting, such basic things without which the baby will not survive.

M.B.: I still want to somehow bring this to visual perception. We said that there is something that you did not want to call instincts.

O.I.: Yes, and there are forms of behavior that we develop. Some of them unfold because they are evolutionarily pre-determined. They are certainly influenced by the experiences we receive. If we take some starting point, an adult, mature person, whose learning then continues throughout his life, his brain changes throughout his life. And then what happens to us is superimposed. If some event is very strong, then our behavior changes radically simply due to it alone. A borderline example is how soldiers or people who survived some kind of terrorist attack develop post-traumatic stress disorder and now they begin to get scared and react inadequately to situations, to some things that remind them of that event. Like a loud car exhaust.

M.B.: Winces, yes.

O.I.: He shudders or falls in horror and covers his head, because that event was so strong, affected us so much that it alone was enough for the networks of brain neurons that are responsible for something to change.

M.B.: Would such a conditioned reflex work for them?

O.I.: You could say. Conditioned reflex is a big class.

M.B.: This is understandable. I'm just trying to somehow define this to bring it closer to more people's understanding, I guess. Why and how long do neurons remember this? I understand very well what you are talking about. I remember well how, probably for six months, I drove with extreme caution and with great apprehension the place where I had an accident. An accident without casualties, the car was slightly damaged, nevertheless, this was the first time for me, and accordingly it shocked me. I still don’t like this place, but the frantic concentration on this particular stretch of road has already gone. It turns out that I forgot my neurons?

O.I.: An accident has occurred, this is a strong shock, it is important to remember this as something bad, it is important to beware of this bad place.

M.B.: Why don't you want to call it instincts? Because neurons can't have instincts?

O.I.: No, neurons cannot have instincts, I just don’t want to introduce terminology.

M.B.: Confuse biological concepts. It's clear.

O.I.: Yes. And that's it, you remember it. Then you drove there once - nothing bad happened, twice - nothing bad happened, three. And that’s it, gradually this particular neural network that remembers this became not so important. The reaction of increased attention is no longer very important here, you can get past it. But it was not a very strong event. Yes, it was negative, yes, it shocked you.

M.B.: But it’s not comparable to a terrorist attack, that’s true.

O.I.: Yes. It cannot be compared with military operations. It is already very difficult to knock down that reaction, and this is a task that doctors and neuroscientists are still struggling with, because they are trying to change this memory. In principle, if you recall that memory in some way and try to change its significance to a more positive one, then you can try.

M.B.: Is it possible to conclude from this, from this paragraph that was just spoken, that doctors, scientists, neuroscientists are able to modify perception and, as a result, consciousness? That is, you can work with me and I will stop loving my family and, on the contrary, I will begin to perceive them as enemies.

O.I.: Straight ahead.

M.B.: Do you know where it was? Several films. As luck would have it, it always slips out of my head, this disease is known to the entire team. In any case, the question remains. While you are talking, I will now remember this film.

O.I.: But this is such a slightly taboo topic. We could probably do this using certain chemical and pharmacological substances. We know how to do this in animals by controlling the activity of their neurons. These are famous modern experiments where they try to change memory in animals, create false memories in mice, or change what we call the valence of a memory, that is, the significance of a memory, whether it is good or bad. And for this purpose, special transgenic animals are used, and their genome is modified so that certain new genes appear there; genes are taken from algae or bacteria. In algae and bacteria, these genes encode special light-sensitive channels; they need them in order to receive the energy of the sun and convert it into energy that can be used as some kind of food. In mice, everything is organized differently, but the most important thing is that if we illuminate these proteins, which are built into a neuron, into a brain cell, and to illuminate them, we use optical fiber (they are also used in the fiber-optic Internet), we insert it into the brain above a certain group of neurons and using a laser we send light there. This channel opens and sodium ions, for example, enter the neuron. The entry of sodium ions into a neuron means that the neuron is activated. When we say that a neuron is active, it means that this happened.

M.B.: This chemical reaction has occurred.

O.I.: Yes, this event happened - sodium came in, the neuron was activated. Exactly how is not important, but the main thing is that now we can control the activity of neurons by turning on or off the light.

M.B.: It turns out that you can control your brain.

O.I.: Yes.

M.B.: Agree, it sounds primitive now, turning the light on and off. But you can’t order the same mice to perform some complex actions, can you? She can either sit down or stand up. I've composed it now.

O.I.: No, why?

M.B.: Or depending on what to let the light in?

O.I.: There is a certain place where an aggressive male sits, something unpleasant for mice. And the mice remember this place. And as usual, in order to remember something... When we remember something, a group of neurons appears, a network of neurons that record and contain this memory. And we can make sure that this particular group of neurons is marked with exactly these light-sensitive proteins, only there it will be. Then the mouse runs to another place, and something pleasant sits there. For example, for male mice, what is pleasant is a female mouse. They run there happily, and everything is great, and then we turn on the light. And the light activates those neurons that are associated with a scary male or a scary current. Normally, if we offer them a place where there used to be a female, or a place where there used to be a male, then, of course, they will run to where the female was, because it’s nice there, and they want to look for her. If we change the valence and significance of the memory in this way, now the female is not associated with the female.

M.B.: And with an aggressive male.

O.I.: Yes. Then they will no longer prefer this place.

M.B.: But it turns out that this can be done thanks to these experiments only at a certain distance from the mouse, that is, you are nearby. And when I asked this question, I was thinking about the fact that some kind of work is happening with a person, and then he leaves, but thanks to some kind of telephone call or an object or another person appearing (it is clear that this is a planned action) in his field of vision , it runs some code or something. Is this fantasy?

O.I.: Yes, I think it's fantastic.

M.B.: I remembered that movie - "The Hunger Games", some part. These are several films, one after another. And there the person’s consciousness changed, he began to perceive his beloved girl as an enemy. In the last part. Otherwise I couldn’t calm down. Yes, the listener asks the question: “Why is that object that we sometimes diligently look for, which is the goal of our search and we can’t find it, is in the most visible place?” Is this some kind of illusion getting in the way? Or our inattention, fatigue?

O.I.: Yes, it's not an illusion. Rather, we have some kind of knowledge that, most likely, we put this key in this basket.

M.B.: Look, this knowledge of ours is hindering us again.

O.I.: Yes, sometimes things happen that get in the way. And if instead of a basket we hung the key here on the door under the bell, where we should immediately see it, but it seems to us that we need to find it in some secluded places: a basket, a pocket, a backpack, something. And so attention is constantly switched to such things.

M.B.: We just can't find it.

O.I.: Yes.

M.B.: They also asked why the eyes are the mirror of the soul, but it seems to me that this lies on the surface. The eyes are the first thing we see on a person’s face, and they are a reflection of emotions. Agree with me, right? But I want to ask about another phrase. How would a neuroscientist explain the phrase “ease of perception.” I sit, see everything, understand everything, it’s not difficult for me. Why is this happening? After all, there is a huge number of items, plus information, plus I also multitask at times.

O.I.: Yes, but the brain is optimally built and developed in such an optimal way. Already during our development, he learned, for example, everything related to vision. A small child under one or two years of age does not have the same vision as an adult. The closer to birth, the more different it is. At first he sees a more blurry image, does not highlight the contours, then the contours begin to be highlighted, then they become voluminous. For all this to happen, the child needs to experience it, so, for example, they say that it is important to walk with children in open spaces, so that the perspective can be seen, so that the visual system can train to recognize it.

M.B.: Is a child able to do this while lying in a stroller, or is it still advisable to carry him in an upright position at this moment?

Vague doubts are already arising about whether the theme of our program “perception of illusions” means the perception of the surrounding world, because we are touching on so many nuances here. It’s impossible to separate and talk about perception without talking about memory, say, experience, right? It's all very interconnected.

O.I.: When we talk about the brain, about the body, it is important to talk about it as a whole, and therefore it is difficult to share perceptions without experience. A given person does not have any perception without pre-existing experience.

M.B.: We paused on the topic of babies. And then a question arose from the listener: “Why is it undesirable to look at babies lying in a crib or stroller from the side of the head?” That is, we appear upside down in his eyes. Is this just superstition or is it also somehow connected with the development of vision in a child, with the accumulation of perceptual experience?

O.I.: No, what is never allowed is possible, of course, because if you just approached from the side of the head once, once he saw your face upside down.

M.B.: Scared!

O.I.: But most of the time he will see your face correctly.

M.B.: What if you do this all the time?

O.I.: If he constantly does this and he does not see the face correctly, then later there will be great difficulties with what we have already talked about, in order to perceive the face and emotions.

M.B.: At what point in life can this happen? When will he become conscious?

O.I.: As far as I remember, by the age of three, the perception of faces was already completely formed. And right away it won’t be quite the same. In principle, the brain is quite plastic, and everything can be fixed. Even children who were born due to clouding of the lens, for example, were blind and did not see, then later, if at an older age (it seems that this can be done at one and a half or two years old) an operation is performed and the lens is returned to normal, then they learn see the same.

M.B.: It's as if they were born with full vision.

O.I.: But this requires much more effort. So it develops gradually, and we know that there are so-called critical periods in children, during which the maturation of certain functions should occur, during which the maturation of certain functions occurs. That is, vision, speech perception, speech production, speaking. Most of these functions can then be learned.

M.B.: Is there something that cannot be learned if it does not develop as it should develop, as usual, traditionally? That is, Mowgli can remain Mowgli.

O.I.: If they are found already in adulthood, at an older age, at 6-7 years old, then yes, many functions do not return and there are great difficulties with social functions and so on. But I said that vision can be learned, but it will require some effort. There are special exercises. Children who have undergone surgery are already specially taught to see all this correctly.

M.B.: Yes. Apparently, we also influence the brains of our listeners. Listen to the text messages: "Game of Thrones" programs my neurons for bloodthirstiness." Can it really? I remember very well how I watched "The Brigade" in one evening and I began to speak their language. I mimicked so much, that is, I was immersed. It affects brain or what?

O.I.: Some kind of imitation. Obviously, if you went on air that same evening, you would force yourself to speak normally through an effort of will.

M.B.: No, we know examples from life when no effort of will is enough to not miss some obscene word.

O.I.: It's random.

M.B.: Which one is random? This happens all the time among the military.

O.I.: They don't just want to.

M.B.: I don't think they can!

O.I.: And then, this happened to them often throughout their lives, and the “Brigade” - one evening.

M.B.: It is clear that the volume was small. Look, another question. “Is it possible to increase the volume of long-term memory with the help of any drugs? (This is due to what we said about mice). Without training it, for example, by reading or constant repetition. Or is it possible to remember what you read, for example, poetry, the first time? "

O.I.: Perhaps - yes. There are all sorts of special techniques, I don’t know them very well.

M.B.: But this is not a phenomenon, is it simply an effect on some parts of the brain that we usually do not use?

O.I.: There are phenomena. A case that is widely known, and there is more than one, but in Russia the most widely known case is the case of Shereshevsky with hypermemory, when he remembered everything that was told to him. He was a journalist, and at some point his editor began to notice that when he gave out assignments, who should go where, what to do, and what to ask, he was the only one who never wrote anything down. He sat, carelessly looked out the window and wrote nothing down. And he thought that this was a manifestation of carelessness, carelessness in work, and at some point he decided to test it in the series: “Come on, tell me what I told you.” And he told everything that he had told him, and everything that he had told everyone else.

M.B.: Has it been investigated?

O.I.: Yes, Luria studied him, he conducted various tests, showing that this hypermemory interferes with him in a certain way.

M.B.: So there's too much to identify that a glass is a glass?

O.I.: No, perception and identification were not affected. But to sort out the information he really needed, it all took time. This is a phenomenon.

M.B.: Systematization.

O.I.: Yes. But there are simply techniques that allow you, by marking words by color or placing them in a room, to remember a lot, a lot.

M.B.: Doesn't this complicate things even more?

O.I.: I haven't tried it.

M.B.: What is your own memory system? It's different for everyone. Someone subtracts two from five or forty-eight from thirty-eight, that is, someone remembers by numbers, someone, you say, by colors. What do you need to do to remember the phone number?

O.I.: I just remember numbers easily.

M.B.: I envy these people. They surround me, I'm lucky to have them! Apparently, so that I understand how wretched I am at this.

O.I.: I do this as usual, as everyone advises, I repeat several times. But it gets in the way. I remembered the number of one bank card to pay online, then it changed, I kept confusing it with the new one, then I remembered the new one, but I didn’t forget that one.

M.B.: This is what experiments also confirm, that systematization is lame due to the large quantity, the volume that our memory allows us.

O.I.: Of course, everything gets confused, especially similar things.

M.B.: Yes, a twelve-digit number.

O.I.: There is not the best recognition of similar things.

M.B.: I want to ask you how to explain the fact that sometimes we remember something that didn’t really happen? I’m not talking about deja vu now, I’ll warn you right away. That is, it was not absolutely not, but as an example, so that everyone understood what we were talking about. An event in which two people take part, let's keep them to a minimum. Two people, both took part, both recorded it in their memory. Three years have passed, five years, it doesn’t matter. And this event is really important. And they meet and begin to tell each other about how they perceived this, say, date. And they both realize that it feels like they were on different dates. That is, we think of something, invent it, embellish it. And in addition to the positive meaning of these bright events, important events in our lives - I noticed this even when we are talking about tragedies - we attach some significance to the departed person, inventing it, and then it is somehow integrated into this story and becomes true.

O.I.: Yes, but there are two aspects to this, as it seems to me. The first aspect is more understandable - this is a kind of forgetting, a certain generalization, and now something more general remains.

M.B.: This is a dry residue.

O.I.: Yes. Some facts have been forgotten, and this is one part. The other part is that, on the contrary, it is often remembered and often this memory is reactivated. We remember this, and the network of neurons that are associated with this memory is activated.

M.B.: Does it grow throughout life? Let's say I remember my first love every day. Will this group of neurons grow in me?

O.I.: There is no telling, it can change.

M.B.: More connections?

O.I.: Communications change, incoming connections may change. Although I say so confidently, in fact we know what can happen, but definitely not yet completely.

M.B.: Okay, okay, I interrupted you.

M.B.: So that it doesn't let go.

O.I.: Just to make sure they're roughly on par with the person we're talking about. It becomes overgrown with details, and then it is clear: the details are repeated over and over again. At first this is done more or less consciously, and then that’s it, the neuron of details (roughly speaking, conditionally) was added there and integrated into this network, the person himself can no longer distinguish.

M.B.: What happened and what didn’t happen.

O.I.: Yes. And so time after time, since this is a very significant event, a person thinks a lot about it and talks a lot, and if you think each time, adding a little something...

M.B.: Or in another state, for example, sad or happy.

O.I.: Yes. Then you can add a little more there, to this memory.

M.B.: So what are the conclusions here? Firstly, you need to write everything down if it’s really important, because it turns out you can’t trust diaries if you write from memory, especially when years have passed, right?

O.I.: Obviously, it depends on the individual. There are those who will never add anything there.

M.B.: These are unemotional, probably less emotional people.

O.I.: Because they thought about it strictly as it was. But it is better to rely on some written evidence of the era.

M.B.: In principle, we are done, it turns out, about why we invent? It seems to me that this is one of the most striking illusions in a person’s life. I will now explain why I became so animated. I collect these illusions. I collect things that do not coincide with other participants in our common events. And I have accumulated quite a large number of them over the course of my life. But when I share with someone, people sometimes look at me in surprise, because they either didn’t notice it, or they didn’t have it in their life. That is what interests me.

Since we were talking about something that didn’t happen, let’s have some more deja vu here. What is deja vu? Is this something that did not happen, but it seems to us that it did? But at the same time we realize that this did not happen. Right?

O.I.: There are many French words that I cannot pronounce, except for “vu,” but when it seems to us that we hear, when it seems to us that we smell. But in a general sense, it's mostly about some kind of complex scenes. Usually from the series: we are in Greece for the first time, we approach some restaurant, the sun is shining, and we think: “Oh, my God, I’ve been here before.” It happens to me often when we are discussing something at work, and I keep thinking: “Oh, my God, this conversation has already happened.” In the same words, in the same composition.

M.B.: Why does it seem that way to you?

O.I.: There are two big theories of déjà vu. It is clear that since it seems to us that something has already happened, it means that we remember something wrong, or remember too much, or something else.

M.B.: Look, "too much" again. Too much information is getting in the way - stop progress, I'll get off!

O.I.: No, it doesn’t bother us now. We, on the contrary, have stopped remembering many things and are googling everything.

M.B.: So we are deteriorating?

O.I.: I don't like this word.

M.B.: Don't you like black and white? Yes, that's right.

O.I.: We are very adaptable. If you can find something, why remember it?

M.B.: How can you increase the amount of memory? I haven’t forgotten about deja vu, we’ll be back now. How about increasing memory capacity, training? What if life throws us into such circumstances that no Googles, Shmoogles or Bubbles will be available and we will need to remember everything.

O.I.: Maybe, but not yet likely. In my opinion, this is a very adaptive process.

M.B.: Okay, I agree. You are simply loyal to people. You are not loyal to mice.

O.I.: Mice can't Google, they have to remember. What I mean is that there are some important things that need to be remembered.

M.B.: Yes, I agree.

O.I.: And you can also, if you are interested in something, spend more of yourself on memorizing. I don't know if you're a wine fan about memorizing wine regions or anything like that. There is absolutely no point in memorizing the capital of Singapore, for example, if it doesn’t bother you at all. For what?

M.B.: Now you somehow took it and tripped it up. Okay, let's get back to you. For some reason, I imagine you exclusively in the laboratory. Apparently because mice, mice.

O.I.: In the laboratory, yes.

M.B.: Super! So, I guessed right. And it seems to you that it happened. You are a rationalist, you are a scientist! There is no soul or god.

O.I.: It's just a feeling. If you scroll through all this, it becomes clear, just like with the feelings at the restaurant or somewhere else, that this did not and could not happen. And there are two theories about this. The first theory says, okay, there was something else, something else is stored in memory.

M.B.: Similar or not?

O.I.: Similar. And it just reminded you of something else.

M.B.: Like a person similar to another person.

O.I.: Everything is fine. But instead of remembering this other thing and rejoicing at what a wonderful feeling, for some reason this other thing is not remembered, that is, we cannot pick out this network of neurons, and instead of a clear memory, we get the feeling that this is connected with something... then to others, it has already happened. And this is simply based on the fact that we are not always good at distinguishing between two similar things and remembering them well.

M.B.: Yes, you talked about this. Now I’m going to say something that is sedition for scientists, but I’ll say it anyway. They have a certain esoteric coloring, right? You don’t want to admit that there’s something you haven’t yet discovered in our heads? What we now, out of ignorance or out of faith, call a certain divine essence inside every person, and you, scientists, simply cannot explain this yet, because it has not yet been discovered. Do you know what I mean? I read that they don’t attach much importance to déjà vu, that it’s something that scientists can discuss at their leisure during a conversation, but no one wants to discuss it seriously. What if there is some kind of salt and some kind of crazy discovery in this?

O.I.: First of all, I absolutely admit that there is something we haven’t discovered yet.

M.B.: I thought you were going to say that God exists. I love provoking scientists so much. Okay, I won't! We delete my question from the protocol. There's something we haven't discovered.

O.I.: We cannot assume any hypothetical power of telekinesis based on existing facts, and yes, then we can be very surprised if it does exist. But it seems that still not. It's the same with the brain. We don't know a lot about the fact that neurons are activated, we know that they are activated in a certain rhythm, in certain combinations. And we know that more or less all of this is the activation or deactivation of neurons. There's nothing else there. But how, by what principle, how does it generally happen that from these not very complex activities (if you look at it, everything looks quite simple) our “I”, consciousness, that’s all, is formed - this principle is incomprehensible to us.

M.B.: That is, how from something so simple is formed, if compared with animals, for example, something so complex is formed.

O.I.: No, in animals everything is also very complicated.

M.B.: What then to compare with? Who should I substitute here, in this phrase, instead of animals, in comparison with whom?

O.I.: Not compared to anyone. We just see the neuron, we know that it works like this - sodium comes in, potassium comes out, chlorine comes in, whatever.

M.B.: All chemical processes of some kind.

O.I.: We know all sorts of chemical and physiological characteristics of neurons, how they communicate with each other, how they transmit information. We are starting to learn something about populations of neurons, how they jointly generate the rhythm of the brain, what we see on the EEG, all sorts of other things, and how it is superimposed, how it ensures a certain work. But I speak all the time in more vague words, because we don’t know further.

M.B.: What doesn't give you the opportunity? There is no such equipment, supercomputers? I don't know what's missing? What's stopping you from delving into your brain?

O.I.: Of course, we are most interested in how a person works.

M.B.: Yes.

O.I.: To look at how a person’s brain works, we cannot get into his brain, unfortunately or to someone’s joy.

M.B.: Yes, so that it does not lead to the death of a person.

O.I.: Yes, we can only look at the whole brain. We lack the resolution of fMRI. We can see certain areas of the brain, but it's not about the areas, it's about individual neurons. We have already more or less understood this from other experiments on animals. And permission is not enough. Sooner or later we will probably overcome this.

A very big problem for neuroscientists is analyzing everything. You can get a huge sheet of Excel data sheet and not know how to ask the right question. This is difficult even for me to explain now.

M.B.: I understand, yes. It’s difficult to explain now, because it’s not clear at first. This is all clear, I'm just looking at my watch, and I'm really looking forward to asking the question that a listener wrote to us. “Isn’t it a reason to contact a specialist because I have been remembering telephone numbers with codes and names for more than 10-15 years, but periodically I forget what “Vasya said a week ago?” That is, short-term memory tends to zero.”

O.I.: No. Now I’m back to terms again. Short-term is up to several hours, then simply by its physiological mechanism it becomes long-term.

M.B.: Fine. What's wrong with a person? Or is it like that?

O.I.: Maybe it just doesn’t matter what Vasya said. I think it's okay, it's just features.

M.B.: Of course, we don’t have time to talk about hallucinations and dreams, which means there is a reason to meet again. Neuroscientist Olga Ivashkina, thank you very much for the evening.

O.I.: Thank you. Goodbye.

M.B.: Happy, friends.

As you know, our brain consists of two hemispheres: left and right. In this case, the right hemisphere mainly “serves” the left side of the body: it receives most of the information from the left eye, ear, left arm, leg, etc. and transmits commands to the left arm and leg accordingly. The left hemisphere serves the right side.

As you know, our brain consists of two hemispheres: left and right.

In this case, the right hemisphere mainly “serves” the left side of the body: Receives most of the information from the left eye, ear, left arm, leg, etc. and transmits commands to the left arm and leg accordingly.

The left hemisphere serves the right side.

Usually one of the hemispheres in a person is dominant, which is reflected in the individual personality traits. For example, left-hemisphere people are more drawn to science. Right-hemisphere people are more eager to engage in art or areas of activity that require individual imaginative solutions. The vast majority of great creators - composers, writers, poets, musicians, artists, etc. - “right-brain” people.

How to determine your dominant hemisphere

Test 1

Name colors, not what is written. The right hemisphere of the brain recognizes colors, the left hemisphere reads. This exercise involves balancing the hemispheres and training their interaction. For safety, the test begins and ends with the ‘correct’ word-color combinations.

Test 2

Optical effects - chiaroscuro - form a three-dimensional image. In a picture or photograph you can see a lunar crater, and if you turn it 180 degrees, you can see a mountain, and this is not only an illusion, but a feature of vision, the visual habit of the eye to the fact that the daylight of the sun comes from top to bottom.

Lunar craters (first photo). When you rotate the photo 180 degrees (second photo), “mountains” appear in the picture.

Test 3

Optical illusions (optical illusions, glitches) – image rotation, flickering and other visual illusions. If you look for too long, an aftereffect occurs (by turning your gaze to the side, towards a white background, you can see the same picture).

Ordinary but regular (morning and afternoon) training of the vestibular apparatus (turns, bends, rotations, stretching upwards, standing on your toes and looking up) - develops a sense of balance and coordination of movements, as well as strengthens the psyche and stabilizes certain human field structures (stability the so-called astral body, etc.)

In case of increased blood pressure, headaches and dizziness during training, temporarily concentrate attention on both points E36 (zu-san-li), or perform a light acupressure massage to align your energy along the meridians. Ground yourself in a timely manner - through everyday activities, household chores, physical education and sports, walks in nature.

Note: look at the “Optical Illusions” pictures for no longer than 15 minutes at a time, so as not to weaken your psyche.

Test 4

According to rzelulattam ilsseovadniy odongo anligysokgo unviertiset, not ieemt zanchneya, in kokam pryaokde rsapozholeny bkuvy v solva. Galvone, so that you pre-avya and psloendya bkvuy blyi on mseta. Osatlyne bkuvy mgout seldovt in a ploonm bsepordyak, everything is torn tkest chtaitsey without wandering. The main thing is that we do not read every book in isolation, but all together.

Test 5

What do you see?

If you are a girl, you have a developed right hemisphere of your brain. If the old woman - left.

Test 6

Find the man's head in this picture (search for no more than 3 minutes).

If you have completed the task:

in less than 3 seconds, then your right hemisphere of your brain is better developed than most people;

within 1 minute – this is a normal result;

if within 1–3 min. – your right hemisphere is poorly developed, you need to eat more meat protein;

if the search took you more than 3 minutes, that’s not good...

Test 7

Below is a picture, when viewed, depending on which hemisphere of your brain is active, the object will move in a certain direction. In this case, either clockwise or counterclockwise. So…

If you see this girl moving clockwise, then your right hemisphere is active at the moment. If it moves counterclockwise, then you are using the left hemisphere. Some may see it moving in both directions.

Try to get it to move in the opposite direction using the other hemisphere. You can do it.

Look to the side and look at the girl again, after a while she will begin to move in the opposite direction. Also, some people discovered that you can look at her legs and she will again change the direction of movement.

Experiments have shown that two different areas of the brain are responsible for different types of mental activity.

Usually people use only one hemisphere, characteristic of their type of thinking. But there are individuals who work with both hemispheres.

There are schools that favor one hemisphere over the other. Thus, schools that develop the left hemisphere focus their attention on logical thinking, analysis and accuracy. While the right-brain school focuses on aesthetics, feelings and creativity.

And note:

Areas of specialization of the left hemisphere:

Processing verbal information: The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for your language abilities. This hemisphere controls speech, as well as reading and writing abilities.

It also remembers facts, names, dates and their spelling.

Analytical thinking: The left hemisphere is responsible for logic and analysis. It is this that analyzes all the facts.

Literal understanding of words: The left hemisphere can only understand the literal meaning of words.

Sequential thinking: Information is processed by the left hemisphere sequentially in stages.

Mathematical abilities: Numbers and symbols are also recognized by the left hemisphere.

Logical, analytical approaches, which are necessary for solving mathematical problems, are also a product of the work of the left hemisphere.

Control of movements of the right half of the body. When you raise your right hand, it means that the command to raise it came from the left hemisphere.

Areas of specialization of the right hemisphere:

Processing nonverbal information: The right hemisphere specializes in processing information, which is expressed not in words, but in symbols and images.

Parallel information processing: Unlike the left hemisphere, which processes information only in a clear sequence, the right hemisphere can simultaneously process a lot of different information. It is able to look at a problem as a whole without applying analysis.

The right hemisphere also recognizes faces, and thanks to it we can perceive a set of traits as a single whole.

Spatial orientation: The right hemisphere is responsible for location perception and spatial orientation in general. It is thanks to the right hemisphere that you can navigate the terrain and create mosaic puzzle pictures.

Musicality: Musical abilities, as well as the ability to perceive music, depend on the right hemisphere, although, however, the left hemisphere is responsible for musical education.

Metaphors: With the help of the right hemisphere, we understand metaphors and the results of other people's imagination. Thanks to it, we can understand not only the literal meaning of what we hear or read. For example, if someone says: “He’s hanging on my tail,” then the right hemisphere will understand exactly what this person wanted to say.

Imagination: The right hemisphere gives us the ability to dream and fantasize. With the help of the right hemisphere we can create different stories. By the way, the question “What if...” is also asked by the right hemisphere.

Artistic abilities: The right hemisphere is responsible for visual arts abilities.

Emotions: Although emotions are not a product of the functioning of the right hemisphere, it is more closely related to them than the left.

Sex: The right hemisphere is responsible for sex, unless, of course, you are too concerned about the technique of this process itself.

Mysticism: The right hemisphere is responsible for mysticism and religiosity.

Dreams: The right hemisphere is also responsible for dreams.

Controls the movements of the left half of the body: When you raise your left hand, it means that the command to raise it came from the right hemisphere.published If you have any questions about this topic, ask them to the experts and readers of our project

We are accustomed to taking the world around us for granted, so we do not notice how our brain deceives its own masters.

The imperfection of our binocular vision, unconscious false judgments, psychological stereotypes and other distortions of worldview give rise to optical illusions. There are a huge number of them, but we tried to collect the most interesting, crazy and incredible of them for you.

Impossible figures

At one time, this genre of graphics became so widespread that it even received its own name - impossibilism. Each of these figures seems quite real on paper, but simply cannot exist in the physical world.

Impossible trident

Classic blivet is perhaps the most striking representative of optical drawings from the “impossible figures” category. No matter how you try, you will not be able to determine where the middle prong originates.

Another striking example is the impossible Penrose triangle.

It is in the form of a so-called “endless staircase”.

And also “The Impossible Elephant” by Roger Shepard.

Ames room

Issues of optical illusions interested Adelbert Ames Jr. from early childhood. After becoming an ophthalmologist, he continued his research into depth perception, which resulted in the famous Ames Room.

How does the Ames room work?

In a nutshell, the effect of Ames's room can be conveyed as follows: it seems that in the left and right corners of its back wall there are two people - a dwarf and a giant. Of course, this is an optical trick, and in fact these people are of quite normal height. In reality, the room has an elongated trapezoidal shape, but due to false perspective it appears rectangular to us. The left corner is farther away from the visitors’ view than the right, and therefore the person standing there seems so small.

Movement Illusions

This category of optical tricks is of greatest interest to psychologists. Most of them are based on the subtleties of color combinations, the brightness of objects and their repetition. All these tricks mislead our peripheral vision, as a result of which the perception mechanism gets confused, the retina captures the image intermittently, spasmodically, and the brain activates the areas of the cortex responsible for recognizing movement.

floating star

It's hard to believe that this picture is not an animated GIF, but an ordinary optical illusion. The drawing was created by Japanese artist Kaya Nao in 2012. A pronounced illusion of movement is achieved due to the opposite direction of the patterns in the center and along the edges.

There are quite a few similar illusions of movement, that is, static images that appear to be moving. For example, the famous rotating circle.

Or yellow arrows on a pink background: when you look closely, they seem to sway back and forth.

Caution: This image may cause eye pain or dizziness in people with weak vestibular systems.

Honestly, this is a regular picture, not a GIF! Psychedelic spirals seem to drag you somewhere into a universe full of strangeness and wonder.

Changeling illusions

The most numerous and fun genre of illusion drawings is based on changing the direction of looking at a graphic object. The simplest inverted drawings just need to be rotated 180 or 90 degrees.

Two classic illusions-shifters: nurse/old woman and beauty/ugly.

A more highly artistic picture with a trick - when turned 90 degrees, the frog turns into a horse.

Other “double illusions” are more subtle.

Girl/old woman

One of the most popular dual images was published in 1915 in the cartoon magazine Puck. The caption to the drawing read: “My wife and mother-in-law.”

Old people/Mexicans

An elderly couple or Mexicans singing with a guitar? Most people see old people first, and only then their eyebrows turn into sombreros and their eyes into faces. The authorship belongs to the Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo, who created many illusion pictures of a similar nature.

Lovers/dolphins

Surprisingly, the interpretation of this psychological illusion depends on the person’s age. As a rule, children see dolphins frolicking in the water - their brains, not yet familiar with sexual relationships and their symbols, simply do not isolate two lovers in this composition. Older people, on the contrary, see the couple first, and only then the dolphins.

The list of such dual pictures can be continued endlessly:

In the picture above, most people see the Indian's face first, and only then look to the left and see the silhouette in the fur coat. The image below is usually interpreted by everyone as a black cat, and only then does a mouse appear in its outline.

A very simple upside-down picture - something like this can be easily done with your own hands.

Illusions of color and contrast

Alas, the human eye is imperfect, and in our assessments of what we see (without noticing it ourselves) we often rely on the color environment and brightness of the background of the object. This leads to some very interesting optical illusions.

Gray squares

Optical illusions of colors are one of the most popular types of optical illusion. Yes, squares A and B are painted the same color.

This trick is possible due to the way our brain works. A shadow without sharp boundaries falls on square B. Thanks to the darker "surrounding" and the smooth shadow gradient, it appears to be significantly lighter than Square A.

Green spiral

There are only three colors in this photo: pink, orange and green. Don't believe me? This is what you get when you replace pink and orange with black.

Is the dress white and gold or blue and black?

However, illusions based on color perception are not uncommon. Take, for example, the white-gold or black-and-blue dress that conquered the Internet in 2015. What color was this mysterious dress really, and why did different people perceive it differently?

The explanation of the dress phenomenon is very simple: as in the case of gray squares, everything depends on the imperfect chromatic adaptation of our visual organs. As you know, the human retina consists of two types of receptors: rods and cones. Rods capture light better, while cones capture color better. Each person has a different ratio of cones to rods, so the determination of the color and shape of an object is slightly different depending on the dominance of one or another type of receptor.

Those who saw the dress as white and gold noticed the brightly lit background and decided that the dress was in the shadows, which means the white color should be darker than usual. If the dress seemed blue-black to you, it means that your eye first of all paid attention to the main color of the dress, which in this photo actually has a blue tint. Then your brain judged that the golden hue was black, lightened due to the sun's rays directed at the dress and the poor quality of the photo.

In reality the dress was blue with black lace.

Here's another photo that baffled millions of users who couldn't decide whether it was a wall in front of them or a lake.

Yuri Okunev School

Hello, dear friends! I am with you, Yuri Okunev.

Today we are plunging into the wonderful world of human consciousness. Let's look at pictures to develop memory and attention and at the same time improve our attentiveness in a fun way.

Everything we see today is based on the characteristics of a person’s worldview. Everyone sees the world around them differently. The more attentive will notice all the details and unravel the secret of any trick. Anyone who is less attentive will not notice the trick and will fall into another illusory trap.

Pictures are an accessible method of developing attention for both children and adults. This is a good way to spend your leisure time with benefit for business. By practicing, you adjust such properties of attention as concentration, stamina and switchability. If you wish, you can print out pictures that develop attention in order to examine them in more detail.

How does this work

Most of the paintings discussed below are based on the effect of optical illusion or optical illusion. This is an erroneous visual perception of an image, which gives the mind a reason to draw incorrect conclusions and interpret pictures in the most unexpected way.

Today we will watch:

The illusion of image depth perception (a two-dimensional image becomes three-dimensional);
The illusion of movement (the picture comes to life);
Changelings;
Chameleons (one picture contains two pictures);
Optical illusion (the viewer sees something in the picture that is not there).

And at the same time develop attention. Like? Then let's go!

Warm-up

If you managed to read it the first time, you are very attentive. This task illustrates how the human brain works.
Great for training schoolchildren's concentration. Take any text. Replace several letters in it with icons, for example, the letter “a” is a triangle, the letter “c” is a pyramid, etc. Invite your child to read.

Changelings

Reversals are drawings that, when rotated 90 or 180 degrees, we see an image different from the original one.
TEST 2. The picture shows the heroine of Krylov’s fable - a crow. Can you see her interlocutor?

That's right, fox! We turned the drawing upside down and got this image.

Now try to find the crow in this picture again. Did everything work out? Are the crow's wings and legs in place?

TEST 3. You see a drawn frog. Can you see the horse?

Chameleon pictures

In these tasks you need to find the second image hiding behind the first. Sometimes this requires moving a certain distance away from the object in question. We develop switching attention.

TEST 4. What do you see in this picture? An old man? A young man on a horse? Do you see a woman?

TEST 5. Here both pictures are perceived without much difficulty.

TEST 6. This drawing can be classified into the previous category - shifters. Find a mother and child praying.

TEST 7. Another task. Do you see a shepherd playing the pipe? And the cow that peacefully grazes at a distance?

Whoever didn’t hide is not my fault

Now we will look for finer details in the picture. First, a task for preschoolers. Don’t relax, it’s also useful for adults to do this.

TEST 8. The hunter went hunting. He needs to catch: rhinoceros, butterfly, toucan, wild boar, leopard, elephant, monkey, porcupine, parrot, giraffe. Help him.

TEST 9. And here you need to find 11 faces.

TEST 10. How many horses do you see?

TEST 11. How many cats?

Optical illusion

The tasks in this section force our attention to the maximum. Illusion pictures provoke us to see something that is not actually there. What you see depends on your level of attentiveness.

TEST 12. To begin with, this is the image. What do you see?

Eye? Do you see the eye? But he's not there! The photographer was just shooting water!

TEST 13. What can you not find on the subway?

TEST 14. Superman girl.

TEST 15. Which girl has which head?

Depth perception

The following illusion pictures will make us believe the incredible. It turns out that a flat surface can be... an entire abyss. See for yourself.

TEST 16. What is shown here?

One of the directions of street art is 3D drawings on asphalt. You can see this picture only from a certain angle, standing at a pre-designated point. Would you believe that this miracle is just painted asphalt and you can walk on it?

TEST 17. What do you think of this creation? How many of you see a flat surface in this picture?

Motion perception

It turns out that some pictures can move. This happens because the retina of our eye, perceiving certain combinations of colors, reflexively changes them. Makes light areas dark and vice versa. The effect is enhanced if you bring the drawing closer to you, move it away from you, or tilt your head.

TEST 18. Isn't it true that the wheels move?

Please note that the picture will become absolutely motionless if you focus your gaze on one point. In this way, concentration and stability of your attention are perfectly developed. Try to “freeze” the picture for 1-2 minutes.

TEST 19. Shining sun.

TEST 20. And finally, the last drawing, for a snack. Look carefully and tell me which side of the house the window is on. Right? Left?

The end

Well, our creative conversation has come to an end. If you liked training your attention, I recommend the service Vikium. The simulators in it are no less exciting than these pictures. And I say goodbye to you, dear readers. Be sure to write your comments, I would like to know what you liked most. Subscribe to blog news if you haven't already.
See you soon! Yours, Yuri Okunev.

An optical illusion is an impression of a visible object or phenomenon that does not correspond to reality, that is, an optical illusion. Some visual illusions have long had a scientific explanation, others still remain a mystery.

Optical illusions: optical illusion

The information collected by our eyes is in some way inconsistent with the source. Optical illusions can cause serious headaches. Therefore, such things need to be treated with caution.

There are three main types of illusions:

1. Literal optical illusions

These optical illusions are considered the simplest. They are characterized by a difference in the image (that is, the perception of the image) and the actual tangible objects that make up the picture.

A literal optical illusion makes us see completely different objects or figures from those shown in the pictures.

2. Physiological optical illusions

These illusions affect the eyes and brain by overstimulating a certain type (brightness, color, size, position, tilt, movement).

3. Cognitive optical illusions

These illusions are the result of our brain's misperceptions and unconscious inferences.

We continue to collect the coolest optical illusions. Be careful: some of them can cause tearing, nausea and disorientation.

So, each of the following optical illusions can blow our minds

Do you see three pretty girls?

Now let's flip the image

Our brain rarely encounters upside-down images, so it cannot notice distortions in them

Illusion 13 people

Initially we see 12 people here, but after moving, another one appears, the 13th

Which way is the window open?

You can change direction just by thinking about it

Distortion of perception of movement

These blocks do not move one after another - their speed is the same

Fill color

Look at the black dot in the center. Keep looking at it as the picture changes.

Did you see a color photo? Now take your eyes away from the point.

Contrast simulation

The squares on the left side seem to be darker than the squares on the right

However, they are actually the same color

Ames room

The irregularly shaped room used to create a three-dimensional optical illusion was designed by American ophthalmologist Albert Ames in 1934

Dynamic brightness gradient

Slowly move your eyes closer to the screen and the “light” in the middle will become brighter

Move it back and it will become weak again.

Vanishing points

Focus your gaze on the green dot in the middle

After a while, the yellow dots will disappear one by one. In fact, they remain in place, it's just that static frames disappear from our consciousness if they are surrounded by constantly changing images.