看看上面这张图片。你是否感觉到中央的黑洞正在膨胀，就好像你正在进入一个黑暗的环境或掉进了一个洞里？如果是这样，那么你绝对不是唯一一个：一项新的研究表明，约86%的人会产生这种“扩大的洞”错觉，这在科学上是新的。
这项研究的论文第一作者Bruno Laeng指出：“‘扩大的洞’是一个高度动态的错觉：中央黑洞的圆形涂抹或阴影梯度唤起了一种明显的光学流动印象，就像观察者正朝着一个洞或隧道前进。”
视错觉并不只是没有科学兴趣的噱头：社会心理学领域的研究人员研究它们是为了更好地了解我们的视觉系统用来预测和理解视觉世界的复杂过程–其方式远比光度计装置更迂回，后者只是简单地记录光子能量的数量。
在2022年5月30日发表在《Frontiers in Human Neuroscience》上的这项新研究中，Laeng及其同事表明，“扩大的洞”错觉非常善于欺骗我们的大脑，它甚至还会促使瞳孔扩张反射，从而让更多的光线进入。
瞳孔反射取决于感知，不一定取决于现实
“在这里，我们根据新的‘扩大的洞’幻觉认为，瞳孔对我们如何感知光线做出反应–即使这种‘光线’像幻觉中那样是想象的–而不仅仅是对实际进入眼睛的光能数量做出反应，”Laeng说道，“孔洞扩大的幻觉促使瞳孔相应地扩张，就像如果黑暗真的增加了一样，会发生这种情况。”
Laeng及其同事探讨了洞的颜色（除黑色外：蓝色、青色、绿色、品红色、红色、黄色或白色）和周围的小点如何影响我们在精神和生理上对幻觉的强烈反应。在一个屏幕上，他们向50名视力正常的女性和男性展示了“扩大的洞”图像的变化，然后要求他们主观地评价他们对这种幻觉的感知程度。当参与者凝视该图像时，研究人员测量了他们的眼球运动和瞳孔的无意识收缩和扩张。作为对照，研究人员向受试者展示了扩大的孔洞图像的“扰乱”版本，其亮度和颜色相同但没有任何图案。
当洞是黑色的时候，这种幻觉显得最有效。当洞是黑色的时候，14%的参与者没有感觉到任何虚幻的扩张，而如果洞是彩色的，20%的参与者没有感觉到。在那些确实感觉到扩张的人中其幻觉的主观强度有着明显的不同。
研究人员还发现，黑洞促进了参与者瞳孔的强烈反射性扩张，而彩色洞则促使他们的瞳孔收缩。对于黑洞而不是彩色的洞，个别参与者对幻觉的主观评价越强，他们的瞳孔直径就越倾向于改变。
少数人不容易受影响
研究人员还不知道为什么少数人似乎对 “扩大的洞”的幻觉不敏感。他们也不知道其他脊椎动物物种甚至是拥有照相机眼睛的非脊椎动物如章鱼是否会像我们一样感知到同样的幻觉。
Laeng总结道：“我们的研究结果表明，瞳孔的扩张或收缩反射并不是一个闭环机制，就像光电池开门一样，除了刺激光感受器的实际光量之外不受任何其他信息影响。相反，眼睛是根据感知到的甚至是想象中的光线进行调整，而不仅仅是根据物理能量。未来的研究可能会发现其他类型的生理或身体变化，这些变化可以‘投射’到幻觉是如何工作的。”
Look at the picture above. Do you feel that the central black hole is expanding, as if you are entering a dark environment or falling into a hole? If so, you are by no means the only one: a new study shows that about 86% of people have the illusion of an “enlarged hole”, which is new in science.
Bruno Laeng, lead author of the study, pointed out: “the ‘enlarged hole’ is a highly dynamic illusion: the circular smear or shadow gradient of the central black hole evokes a clear impression of optical flow, as if the observer is moving towards a hole or tunnel.”
Optical illusions are not just gimmicks with no scientific interest: researchers in social psychology study them to better understand the complex processes that our visual systems use to predict and understand the visual world-far more circuitous than photometer devices. the latter simply records the amount of photon energy.
In the new study, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience on May 30, 2022, Laeng and colleagues show that the “enlarged hole” illusion is so good at deceiving our brains that it even causes the pupil to dilate and reflex, allowing more light to enter.
Pupillary reflex depends on perception, not necessarily on reality.
“here, based on the new ‘enlarged hole’ illusion, the pupil responds to how we perceive light-even if the ‘light’ is imagined as in the illusion-not just to the amount of light actually entering the eye,” Laeng said. “the illusion of dilated holes causes the pupils to dilate accordingly, just as if darkness does increase.”
Laeng and colleagues explored how the color of the hole (except black: blue, cyan, green, magenta, red, yellow or white) and the surrounding dots affect our strong mental and physical responses to hallucinations. On one screen, they showed changes in the “enlarged hole” image to 50 women and men with normal vision, and then asked them to subjectively evaluate their perception of the illusion. When the participants stared at the image, the researchers measured their eye movements and the unconscious contraction and dilation of their pupils. As a contrast, the researchers showed subjects a “disturbed” version of the enlarged hole image with the same brightness and color but no pattern.
This illusion is most effective when the hole is black. When the hole was black, 14% of the participants did not feel any illusory expansion, while if the hole was colored, 20% of the participants did not. There is a significant difference in the subjective intensity of hallucinations among those who do feel expansion.
The researchers also found that black holes promoted strong reflex dilation of participants’ pupils, while colored holes caused their pupils to contract. For black holes rather than colored holes, the stronger the subjective evaluation of hallucinations by individual participants, the more likely their pupil diameters were to change.
A few people are not easily affected.
Researchers do not know why a small number of people seem to be insensitive to the illusion of “enlarged holes”. They also don’t know whether other vertebrate species or even invertebrates with camera eyes, such as octopus, perceive the same hallucinations as we do.
Laeng concluded: “our results show that pupil dilation or contraction reflex is not a closed-loop mechanism, just like a photocell that opens the door, which is not affected by any information other than the actual amount of light that stimulates the photoreceptor. Instead, the eye adjusts to perceived or even imagined light, not just according to physical energy. Future studies may find other types of physiological or physical changes that can be ‘projected’ to how hallucinations work. “
Related posts
