How optical illusions trick your brain - Nathan S. Jacobs

Optical illusions are images that seem to trick our minds into seeing something different from what they actually are. But how do they work? Nathan S. Jacobs walks us through a few common optical illusions and explains what these tricks of the eye can tell us about how our brains assemble visual information into the 3D world we see around us.

Lesson by Nathan S. Jacobs, animation by TED-Ed.

[brandonvillatuya]

I don't know but upside-down Abe is creeping me out

[littlearttalks]

This is a great explanation that breaks down exactly how our eyes are led to see optical illusions!

[MS-gvjd]

i learn more from ted-ed than in school

[thegamingchannel]

4:09 Oh my God that's creepy, especially with the shadow on the eyes

[greenlionawesomeness]

I get why the illusions work the first time, but why doesn't the brain adjust it once it realizes that it's assumptions are false? :(

[hibak_]

This was very well explained thanks, Im always seeing optical illusions but never completely understood how they happened

[cilglwb]

착시현상이 우리들의 두뇌를 속이는 방법에 대하여 배워보는 시간이 되었습니다. 보는 눈의 시점으로 착시현상을 이해해보는 시간이 되었습니다. 정말 재미있는 시간이 되었습나다. 감사합니다.

[AndrewHelbig]

I can't believe I didn't notice that lincoln illusion when it was first shown upside down.  Pretty cool stuff.

[tobiahgonzalez]

The narrator has got to be the best narrator I know, (well, 2nd to Morgan Freeman XD) He always makes the video soothing to hear and very clear. Kudos to the Narrator! ^^ (who ever he is)

[Aurora]

That upside down Lincoln creeped me out once it was the right side up :-/ Gonna haunt me in my sleep!

[volatileaxolotl]

My brain is gonna be so pissed at me for watching like 50 of these in like an hour.

[StarlightNkyra]

4:00
Me when the water starts rising after squatting at the local taco bell

[Hasake]

I still don't understand the explanation about lateral inhibition 

[AlfaAxel]

The white point is surrounded by more white on all four sides than any white point along a line segment.

Does the language make sense? Does he refer to a Hermann grid where there is no highlighting of the intersections?

I think there is an error in the text or the name of the grid. Wikipedia distinguishes between Hermann Grid illusion and the scintillating illusion. Wikipedia also shows that some researchers have contended (doubted) that the lateral inhibition actually can be used as an explanation - but then again, references are missing.

[GinaaTheCheerleader]

When the Abe photo was upside down it looked creepy at first then I noticed what was up when it turned around.. it looks weird both ways tbh.

[abigailjieyeelim]

if you change it into the colors used in graphs for math (green lines and white bg), could it have no effect on us?

[darshansk]

What software do you use to make these videos? :O

[SkeletonKingYoutube]

the pan is not defective the cup has inverted shadow

[JY-tqir]

great video 4:10 brain shortcut is to focus only eyes & mouth to picture FACE

[bakirev]

I have that same plastic eye model at 1:48. The quality is absolutely terrible.