El término ilusión se refiere a una percepción o interpretación errónea de un estímulo externo real. Por ejemplo, ver un animal donde sólo hay vegetación o interpretar una sombra en una calle oscura como si fuera una persona. Este tipo de interpretaciones ha llevado a muchos autores a definir las ilusiones como el resultado de la combinación de poca claridad perceptiva y un estado emocional intenso. Otro tipo de ilusiones son las conocidas como ilusiones ópticas y las pareidolias. Aunque cualquier persona puede experimentar ilusiones sin que ello suponga un estado patológico, algunos trastornos psicológicos pueden incluir ilusiones patológicas. Por ejemplo, una persona con psicosis y la idea delirante de que un grupo de personas está planeando su muerte, al oír una conversación cualquiera entre un grupo de desconocidos, podría escuchar su nombre y los planes para asesinarlo.

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA

An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Though illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people.Illusions may occur with any of the human senses, but visual illusions (optical illusions), are the most well-known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses. For example, individuals watching a ventriloquist will perceive the voice is coming from the dummy since they are able to see the dummy mouth the words.Some illusions are based on general assumptions the brain makes during perception. These assumptions are made using organizational principles (e.g., Gestalt theory), an individual's capacity for depth perception and motion perception, and perceptual constancy. Other illusions occur because of biological sensory structures within the human body or conditions outside of the body within one’s physical environment. The term illusion refers to a specific form of sensory distortion. Unlike a hallucination, which is a distortion in the absence of a stimulus, an illusion describes a misinterpretation of a true sensation. For example, hearing voices regardless of the environment would be a hallucination, whereas hearing voices in the sound of running water (or other auditory source) would be an illusion. Mimes are known for a repertoire of illusions that are created by physical means. The mime artist creates an illusion of acting upon or being acted upon by an unseen object. These illusions exploit the audience's assumptions about the physical world. Well-known examples include "walls", "climbing stairs", "leaning", "descending ladders", and "pulling and pushing".

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA