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Ghost sightings are all too common around the world, with many passionately exclaiming that they could see spirits just at the edge of their vision. As it turns out, they may actually be seeing something. It’s just not what they claim. In a new study, it would seem that the brain generations illusions thanks to peripheral vision.
The findings of a study published in Association for Psychological Science’s journal of Psychological Science suggests that what people see out of the corner of their eyes mighty actually be there, MedicalXpress reports. The brain basically fills in the gap of areas that aren’t covered by the eyes’ field of vision with things that it believes should be there.
According to psychology researcher Marte Otten, the lead author of the study from the University of Amsterdam, this is a feature that seems to be deeply embedded in the brain’s visual and perception system.
"Our findings show that, under the right circumstances, a large part of the periphery may become a visual illusion," Otten said. "This effect seems to hold for many basic visual features, indicating that this 'filling in' is a general, and fundamental, perceptual mechanism."
The study involved testing participants with a series of visual tests, UPI reports. The participants were made to watch as images unfolded on a screen while images on the side were also appearing. The subjects were asked to click on the mouse once all of the images coalesced, and most of them failed.
Based on the results, it was also found that when the participants were asked about what they saw, most of them believed with confidence that the illusion they saw were as real as the actual images that they were fed. This offers some interesting ideas, largely having to do with the breadth of the illusory effects.
