A person can see certain visual illusions - illusions. This suggests that they have complex signal processing mechanisms that enter visual analyzers and have some makings of higher nervous activity.
Humanity has been aware of visual illusions for several thousand years. They work in people because their eyes have a complex structure and in them are the so-called blind spots and other features. That is why the same subject for each person seems different.
Studies have shown that they can fool monkeys, pigeons and dogs. A new work published in the reputable Journal of Comparative Psychology shows that reptiles are susceptible to visual illusions. This seems surprising, because such animals, as previously thought, do not have complex vision and scientists did not assume that visual illusions could act on them.
Maria Santaka, with colleagues working at the University of Padua (Italy), explored the Delbeuf illusion. This is an optical illusion that shows the falsity of visual perception of a relative size. If you put two identical filled circles next to each other and surround one with a ring, then the latter will appear larger. Moreover, the smaller the ring, the larger the circle inside it will seem. In fact, the circles are exactly the same.
Monkeys can see the same illusion.They showed plates of the same size and surrounded by circles (the radius of the drawn circle was completely different). Next, scientists watched which plate the animal would turn to faster.
Next, scientists modified the experience and placed goodies for turtles and lizards. For starters, treats of different sizes were placed on identical plates. There was no illusion, and the lizards hurried to take their place at the large plates. The turtles did not show much interest in this. Perhaps this is due to some structural features of the organ of vision in these animals.
Then the experiment was modified. Animals were given a treat of the same size, but the portions were placed on plates of different sizes. In this way, the Delbef illusion was imitated.
Turtles in this case were not consistent in any of the types of experiments. But the lizards tried to quickly rush to that portion, which visually seemed larger, although in fact it was not.
This experiment showed that some reptiles, like individual birds, mammals can difficult to interpret and process visual signals. Thus, these animals can also be deceived by visual illusions.
This study will help to reveal the secrets of the nervous system of not only animals, but also humans. After all, the higher nervous activity of living beings is one of the most mysterious for biologists.
