现代科学解释了三种古老的光学错觉
现代科学解释了三种古老的光学错觉
Illusions have fascinated humans for centuries. Before we fully understood the science of sensation and perception, philosophers like Aristotle simply observed the world—and picked up on some weird stuff. According to Vincent Hayward, who studies such phenomena at the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics in Paris, these tricks occur when experience and context make you expect one feeling but perceive another due to abnormal circumstances. Here are three of Aristotle’s earliest observed illusions, explained by modern science.
几个世纪以来，幻觉一直让人类着迷。在我们完全理解感知科学之前，像亚里士多德这样的哲学家只是简单地观察世界，并注意到一些奇怪的东西。巴黎智能系统与机器人研究所的文森特·海沃德研究过这类现象，他表示，当经历和环境让你期待一种感觉，但由于不正常的环境，你会感知到另一种感觉时，这些技巧就会出现。以下是亚里士多德最早观察到的三种错觉，并由现代科学加以解释。
Waterfall illusion
瀑布错觉
While watching a moving river, Aristotle noticed that when he shifted his attention to stationary rocks, they wiggled upstream. Neurons that process motion tire after focusing on the same activity. When struck with a still object, cells that track movement in the opposite direction have a stronger impact in comparison, and send it swimming away.
在观察一条流动的河流时，亚里士多德注意到，当他把注意力转移到静止的岩石上时，它们会向上游摆动。处理运动的神经元在专注于相同的活动后会疲劳。当被静止的物体撞击时，与之相反方向运动的细胞会产生更大的冲击力，并使其游走。
Afterimages
后像
After staring directly at the sun (not recommended), Aristotle saw a glowing disc shaped like our local star in his vision for a few lingering moments. When you fixate on something, color receptors in your eyes become overstimulated. Upon looking away, those receptors keep firing and create an imprint, or afterimage, of that object everywhere you look.
在直视太阳之后(不推荐)，亚里斯多德在他的视野中看到了一个类似太阳形状的发光圆盘，片刻后会有所缓解。当你注视某物时，眼睛里的颜色感受器会受到过度刺激。当你把目光移开时，这些感受器就会不停地发出信号，并在你看到的任何地方留下那个物体的印记或后像。
Aristotle’s illusion
亚里士多德的错觉
Close your eyes and hold any rounded object like your nose or a pen (Aristotle may have used a pea) between two crossed fingers. The resulting sensation feels like two separate objects. Your noggin isn’t used to the opposite sides of your fingers touching the same thing. Without your sight to set you straight, the brain assumes it’s touching two different items.
闭上眼睛，用两个交叉的手指握住任意一个圆形的物体，比如鼻子或笔(亚里士多德可能用过豌豆)。由此产生的感觉就像两个分离的物体。你的脑袋不习惯你手指的两边接触同一件事。如果你没有用眼睛去矫正，大脑就会认为它接触了两个不同的物体。
