Psychologists warned that people who can identify the shape of a baby in an optical illusion may need to see a therapist.
Seeing a child in the inkblot suggests that perhaps these people are prone to hallucinations and psychosis.
That’s because they likely have a more predictive brain that fills in the missing images of the child’s head and body.
Experts say the process is useful – it makes us efficient and adept at creating a coherent picture of an ambiguous and complex world – but it can also make some individuals see things that aren’t really there.
This black and white image may look like a random pattern of spots, but scroll down and look at the photo below and stare at it again. Chances are you will understand and see a similar image of a baby. It is this ability that scientists say could help explain why some people are prone to hallucinations
Psychosis is defined as a loss of grip on reality. It is a condition characterized by delusions, hallucinations – both auditory and visual – and irrational beliefs.
The ink spot was developed by psychologists in Britain to investigate how the brain’s processing of visual information differs between people with early psychosis, people prone to psychosis and healthy people.
The scientists’ report included two separate studies.
The first examined whether psychotic experiences, such as hallucinations and delusions, result from an overreliance on prior knowledge when processing ambiguous sensory signals.
And the second looked healthy individuals who showed characteristics associated with schizotypy, a personality trait that can predict psychosis and other mental illnesses.
Although schizotypy was initially thought to confer a risk of schizophrenia, it is now understood as a broader indicator of susceptibility to psychosis.
The first report involved 34 people, including 16 healthy volunteers and 18 thought to be at risk of psychosis. The two matched in age and IQ.
The first study involved 34 people, including 16 healthy volunteers and 18 thought to be at risk of psychosis. The two matched in age and IQ.
In the second study, the researchers examined 40 healthy people recruited from the surrounding community.
Both groups viewed 500 two-tone black-and-white images selected for the difficulty of their interpretation without prior knowledge of what they might be.
Once the bright color image was visible, the researchers looked at how quickly everyone could recognize the shape in the black-and-white photo.
The study found that individuals in the clinical group, those with early psychotic experiences, improved their recognition of shapes after viewing template images compared to healthy controls.
Specifically, the clinical group showed an average performance improvement of a benchmark of 0.35 after viewing the templates, while the control group improved by a benchmark of 0.14.
Scientists think that hallucinations may be caused by a natural process used by the brain to understand the world, and that most of us experience them at one time or another. An image of a baby is shown, the smudgy black and white image above. The pair is similar to the pair used in the study
This suggests that individuals in the clinical group were better at using prior knowledge to recognize the shapes, even though both groups improved overall.
Researchers were able to understand how information processing changes as early symptoms of psychosis emerge.
The studies indicate that both early psychosis and susceptibility to psychosis are linked to a change in visual processing, with individuals tending to rely more on their prior knowledge than on new sensory information.
The results suggested that people with conditions that already put them at risk of developing hallucinations and delusions experience a shift in processing.
This reveals a clear cognitive trait that may contribute to the development of psychotic symptoms.
The researchers said: ‘Given that these information processing changes are evident early in psychosis and even in combination with subtle perceptual changes indicative of psychosis susceptibility, they may be important contributing factors. of serious mental illness.’
Their report appeared in the magazine PNAS.
They identified people unmedicated who showed early psychotic symptoms and who did not meet the criteria for a formal diagnosis through a specialist mental health service.
Their observations indicated that in cases of early psychosis, there is a shift in the way information is processed, prioritizing prior knowledge rather than relying on new sensory input.
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To navigate our environment effectively, we need precise details about the size, location, and distance of objects. But we do not have direct access to this information; instead, we rely on sensory input, which can be difficult to discern.
The human visual system compensates by integrating sensory data with our previous knowledge to form a more accurate understanding of the world.
This is known as top-down processing, where existing knowledge determines how we interpret incoming sensory information.
For example, when you see “The cat sat on the mat,” your brain recognizes the context and automatically fills in the missing letter to read “The cat sat on the mat,” even though the sensory input – the text – is incomplete.
The brain uses its knowledge of language and sentence structure to interpret unclear information.
One of the study’s researchers, Dr Christoph Teufel from the School of Psychology at Cardiff University, said: ‘Vision is a constructive process – in other words, our brains shape the world we ‘see’.
“It fills in the blanks, ignores the things that don’t quite fit, and presents us with a picture of the world that has been edited and crafted to fit what we expect.”