Perceiving and modelling brightness contradictions through the study of brightness illusions

Abstract

In this paper, we argue in the light of visual perceptual experience in favour of the fact that true contradictions are very much perceivable and happen to be an inherent part of the real world.We first describe the phenomenon of perception of two contrary types of brightness illusions, termed as the brightness the brightnessightnessons, termed as the brightnessions. Next, we present a model of brightness induction which can envisage the above-mentioned contradictions in visual brightness perception. The proposed model, called DDOG (Difference of Difference of Gaussians) is based on two aspects. First, two Difference of Gaussians (DOG) functions acting in opposition in two complementary channels, Magno & Parvo, in the central visual pathway and second, a two-pass model of attentive vision. Although the Oriented Difference of Gaussian (ODOG) model of Blakeslee et al. (Vis Res 45:607–615, 2005) can already account for most of these types of illusions, our model is significantly simpler, more consistent than ODOG and biologically more plausible as a neurocomputational model for explaining brightness contradictions in the brain.