Optical Illusion

The broad definition of an optical illusion is essentially any image perceived by your eyesight to be visually deceptive.

There are many different classes of optical illusion, relating to distortion of shape, color, pictures, size and distance, geometric, sensory perception, and hallucinogenic illusions. Some optical illusions occur without any other stimuli other than the image itself, others rely on your own voluntary eye movement to produce an illusionary effect. Others rely on us to focus on a particular point of the image.

An optical illusion occurs because the different cells and receptors of the eye perceive images and colors at different rates, which sometimes result in a false image being relayed to the brain. The brain receives information from receptors in the eye, but in actuality, the eye only perceives a certain quantity of visual information at any given time, while our brain continuously decodes, constructs and reconstructs visual information, giving us the illusion of continuous sight. The right combination of colors, shapes, spatial relations, and other stimuli viewed by the eyes and reported to the brain during the relays of information can achieve the effect of an optical illusion.