The grand illusion - Filling in the gaps

6 important questions on The grand illusion - Filling in the gaps

Why don’t we notice gaps?

  • the brain fills in the missing bits

  • there is no need to fill anything in, because the gaps are just a lack of information

How do we fill in the gaps?

  • the ability to see objects as whole is adaptive (amodal perception / conceptual filling-in)


  • most people are unaware of the blind spot, because we have two eyes which cover it

Which ideas of filling in do exist?

  • isomorphic filling-in: the brain actually fill in the details as though to complute a picture in the brain


  • symbolic filling-in: the process is more conceptual and occurs higher up the visual system.
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What did Ramachandran conclude about filling-in?

Filling-in can’t be just a question of ignoring the gaps. The brain fills-in the blind spot with qualia.

What did experiments with monkeys showed in V1?

V1 contains a continuous functional topographic map

How does filling-in happens with afterimages?

In the way that colours flow into each other. They are treated by the brain as real stimuli that create their own perceptual effects

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