How does the use of color theory influence the effect of illusory motion?

Kenzie M Galloway

Senior Project Advisor : Britt Blasdell

Abstract :

Optical illusions have long been a topic of interest for people around the globe. Their importance
grows, scientists have begun to use them as non invasive tools of investigation and
understanding to gain information about children with dyslexia and autism spectrum disorders,
and things that make their brain pathways different. But the initial creation of these images is
what drives the need to study them. The artists behind the most confusing illusions had to
compose them first. The use of colors and black and white on a two dimensional surface, brought
it to life. How does one accomplish such a task? I chose to dive into how these mystifying
images are brought from imagination to life. The history behind how they originated, and the
potential they hold to benefit the diagnosis process for disorders that were originally thought to
be untreatable.

12th Grade Humanities

Animas High School
Submission date
 Part I : Introduction

Have you ever wondered why an image seems to be in motion before your eyes? Do your

eyes deceive you? Or does your brain play tricks on you? All of our visual experience is an

illusion; in a sense that all of the visual information we see is actually upside down and

backwards, and then internally interpreted further by our brains, flipped upright and frontwards.

This instant process ultimately results in a personally filtered view of the world around us.

There are a variety of optical illusions, and Clear Eyes Eye Care Blog classifies them

under two main umbrellas, literal illusions, and physiological illusions. Literal and physiological

illusions are often pieces of art, something physically outside of the body that is perceived by a

person. There are also illusions that are produced inside of the body, like if you rub your eyes too

hard and you start to see those colored specs, these are often referred to as internal illusions.

Internal illusions are also linked to epilepsy and migraine disorder. The focus of this paper will

be on illusory motion, also known as motion illusions or kinetic illusions. These illusions come

alive on the page, they can rotate or bounce, expand or contract, and it all has to do with the use

of color theory. Illusory motion is directly influenced by complementary and contrasting

colors, and the use of black and white.

Many experiments have been done and the results vary from study to study. However,

with the evolution of technology and with the advancement of illusion artists, there are many

ways in which illusions can serve as a tool to use for investigation into neurodevelopmental

disorders, not just as an intriguing viewing experience. “Measures of visual illusions can provide

much more information about neural mechanisms than ordinary stimuli due to their ability to

highlight the visual system constraints.” (Visual) Children with developmental dyslexia and

autism spectrum disorders often have abnormal brain pathways, and these moving illusions can
be used to understand how children with these conditions process visual information. Potentially

a diagnosis can be given, making it possible for treatment and therapy to begin sooner, and the

chances of the condition improving are more likely.

Part II : Historic Background

Optical illusions have been a topic of intrigue for psychologists, neurologists, and

ophthalmologists as they came into the light of the science world. “Over the course of vision

science history, several illusions successfully provided the first intuition of how the brain

processes a stimulus or the tool to investigate the neurobiological characteristics of the visual

system.” (Visual) Specifically in regards to how sensory information is perceived by the human

brain, the visual processes of humans, and the constraints of the visual system. Such limitations

exist because of evolutionary developments of our ancestors to ensure survival. For example,

being able to see a steady world, despite frequent body, head, and eye movements. The

information that illusions could potentially provide about neurodevelopmental disorders, fueled a

fire of research and experiments.

The artists behind some of the most perplexing illusions were not widely accepted until

the Op Art movement came to light. Dubbed the grandfather of Optical Art, Victor Vasarley was

a French-Hungarian artist born in 1908, and was the leader of the Op Art movement that began

in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Europe and in the United States. The movement strived for

optical style art to be recognized as a legitimate art form, not as something amature. After the

1965 “The Responsive Eye'' exhibit, held by the New York Museum of Modern Art, the term Op

Art started to gain popularity with the public. The realization began to spread among art critics of

the intricate artistry that goes into such pieces, eventually leading to creators being accepted in
the art world as true artists. “In op art, the link between art and illusory perception is an artistic

style in and of itself.” (Art) As the reputation of these illusions began to grow, so did the

experiments to try and explain the science, if there was any to be found, behind these

bewildering images.

Part III : Research and Analysis

All of the visual information we see is processed by our occipital lobe, also known as the

visual cortex, located in the very back of the brain. Everything we see is actually upside down

and backwards, and the job of the occipital lobe is to flip the visual stimuli upright and reflect it

frontwards, this process happens instantly.

There are two main pathways that connect the constant flow of information from the

retinal ganglion cells to the visual cortex, the magnocellular pathway, and the parvocellular

pathway. Magno, meaning large, and parvo, meaning small, come from the size of the retinal

ganglion cells that each pathway connects to. The size of the retinal cells, either large or small,

determine the kind of information each pathway sends to the brain. The magnocellular pathway

is responsible for transmitting information about large, fast moving pieces of visual stimuli. This

pathway is necessary for depth perception, and responds to differences in contrast. The

parvocellular pathway is responsible for transmitting information about small, slow moving,

colorful visual stimuli. This pathway is needed for the identification of objects, and perception of

color, meaning this pathway is responsive to changes in color. (Magnocellular)

When there are abnormalities, or reduced sensitivity in the magnocellular dorsal (M-D)

pathway it can result in a declined ability to process visual information quickly and efficiently.

One theory that has been presented for children with dyslexia and autism is a deficit in the M-D
pathway. This is what contributes to the confusion between letters, and leads to difficulty reading

and writing. Scientists used many different kinds of illusions to try and highlight where in the

brain these abnormalities existed. They found that people with developmental dyslexia had

reduced motion perception compared to people who did not have dyslexia.

Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a professor of psychology at Ritsumeikan University in Osaka,

Japan. He studies optical illusion, visual illusion, and visual perception. Kitaoka is also a famous

motion illusion artist. All of his ‘moving’ art pieces are created from scratch using different

techniques, but the overarching theme in creating illusory motion is luminance profiling and

luminance polarity. Luminance profiles are simply defined as how pigmented a color is, or how

light or dark a shade is.

Figure 1 is a close-up image of the colors and shapes used in

an illusion invented by Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka. The specific use

of black and white opposite of each other is known as orientation

polarity. Our parvocellular pathway recognizes the black as a shadow,

and white as a highlight behind the ovals shown. This method creates

a three dimensional shape, without the use of gradient shading. When

this specific use of black and white is present around any numerous

shapes organized into a pattern, it is hard for our eyes to decipher the conflicting depth

information and determine where the light source is coming from. Another primary use of

contrast used in most colorful illusions is the difference between the background color, and the

color of the patterns or shapes.

When A. Kitaoka conducted a personal study with another psychology professor, Hiroshi

Ashida, on specifically black and white peripheral drift illusions. Peripheral drift illusions are a
type of motion illusion, classified by the area of movement being outside of where your eyes are

focused. Together, the two psychologists found that the order in which four luminance profiles

are arranged intensifies the motion, “The peripheral drift illusion is enhanced by stepwise

luminance profiles.” (Kitaoka, Ashida 261) Stepwise luminance profiles are characterized by a

color getting darker or lighter in a sectioned pattern. This means that the illusory motion is

intensified when the luminance profiles are separated rather than being in a gradient pattern.

Depending on how four shades are

arranged, the motion can either move

from left to right, or right to left.

Figure 2 demonstrates the four

stepwise luminance profiles that

Kitaoka and Ashida used to generate a false motion; black to dark gray, then white to light gray.

The arrows indicate the direction of the observed motion, and the size of the arrows express the

strength of the motion.

Kitaoka and Ashida also reached the

conclusion that fragmented or curved edges on the

stepwise profiled sections made the motion more

intense. Figure 3 shows the fragmented sections

used in The Ouchi illusion, named after its inventor,

Hijime Ouchi. Similar to a checkerboard, the

fragmented edges alternate, generating an

overwhelming sense of contrast in a condensed

area. The Ouchi illusion is an example of an anomalous motion illusion, meaning that one part is

perceived to move separate from the background which stays relatively motionless. The circle

pictured in the Ouchi illusion has fragmented sections oriented in the opposite direction of the

background. Because the sections in the circle have different orientations, compared to those of

the background, it contributes to the circle seeming to float.

Bevil Conway is a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. Recently, he and his

colleagues have proposed that certain highly contrasting patterns can activate neurons in the

visual cortex, and generate motion signals. Illusory motion can also be intensified by something

called microsaccades. These are small involuntary eye movements that happen when the eye is

fixated on an image for an extended period.

“Microsaccades produce small shifts in the

geometric position of the peripheral areas of

the image. These shifts produce repeated

contrast reversals that could create the illusion

of motion.” (Art) Similar to peripheral drift

illusions, microsaccades can create a perceived

motion in the outside edges of the image.

Bridget Riley, born in 1931, is a female

optical illusion artist that was also featured in

“The Responsive Eye” art exhibit along with

Victor Vasarley and many other Op Artists. The female artist rose to fame in her early thirties,

and now ninety years old, Riley to this day mixes her own paint to produce the complementary

and contrasting color palettes that are fundamental to her unique pieces. Riley once said “the
perception of colour is relative – each colour affects and is affected by the colours next to it.”

Figure 4 showcases an art piece called Over, made by Riley. Her most famous works involve

large surfaces with patterns of thin, curved, black and white lines, a technique similar to stepwise

luminance profiling. She uses thin sections of color that alternate close together, the two

completely contrasting palettes seem to mesh together, resulting in some areas almost glowing,

or some areas blending together to resemble television static.

Part IV : Discussion and Conclusions

To this day, there are still many unanswered questions surrounding whether illusory

motion originates from your brain, or from your eyes. However, there is evidence of how

important the correct use of color, as well as the inclusion of black and white, is in creating a

motion illusion. Having contrast between the background and the overlaying patterns and shapes

is equally as important. The intricacies of motion illusions is what makes them come to life. The

carefully executed use of black and white around a shape to create orientation polarity, the use of

luminance profiling and stepwise luminance profiling to create the right amount of contrast

between the elements in the illusion.

Some experts believe that your eyes are responsible for transmitting inaccurate

information to the visual cortex. If this is true, it would be possible that the magnocellular and

parvocellular pathways work against each other. Since the parvocellular pathway is responsible

for the perception of color, and the magnocellular pathway is responsible for the perception of

depth and contrast, it is possible that the two pathways send either conflicting information to the

visual cortex, or confusing information that the visual cortex cannot decipher.
 It could also be a possibility that the visual cortex overrides the information from your

eyes and creates a false image that moves. Meaning that your eyes see the image as being

motionless, but during the process of the visual information being flipped upright and reflected

forward by your visual cortex, the visual stimuli gets internally distorted, which causes the

illusion of motion inside the image.

Part V : Work Cited

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