Scientists Explain Hallucination using Black and White Colors
The scientists have used a simple black and white image to explain why our brains hallucinate. The image in question looks like a random pattern but when looked carefully, one is able to identify a baby. It is exactly this ability that the scientists use to explain why some people may be susceptible to hallucinations which can be associated with psychotic disorder. Simply put, our brain uses hallucinations to make sense of the world around us and it happens to almost everyone of us at some point, says Daily Mail.
The study was conducted by researchers at University of Cardiff in collaboration with Cambridge University to study the predictive nature of our brain. The study examines if this image of the world that our brain creates is in any way contributing to their psychosis. This research was published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that studied 18 people who suffered from psychosis from an early stage and were referred to mental health facility in Cambridgeshire and Petersborough, as per BBC News.
BBC News reported that experiment in brief which included 18 test subjects or volunteers who were in the mental health facility run by NHS Cambridgeshire and Petersborough Foundation Trust. These 18 volunteers were examined together with 16 healthy people to use predictions in order to understand the incomplete and ambiguous white and black image that looked similar to a baby. These people were asked to study the image and identify a human figure if they saw one. Initially they could not identify anything but after seeing the un-distorted images from which the black and image was derived, people with history of psychosis were able to distinguish a human figure. According to the study, the key mental symptoms were discovered through this process that explains the transformed balance in normal functioning brain.
