Summary
University of Tokyo researchers harnessed an optical illusion to reveal insights into how the brain processes visual information. The research focused on the neon-color-spreading illusion, which incorporates patterns of thin lines on a solid background. The illusion causes the human brain to falsely fill in and perceive a nonexistent outline and brightness.
Other studies have implied that consciousness is a top-down process, but this mouse study provides direct evidence for it, Watanabe said. The answer isn't black and white though, as some argue that consciousness likely arises from a mixture of both. By contrast, pure bottom-up processing would take the different features of an image and snap them together like puzzle pieces.
