這些草莓不是紅色的，為什么你的大腦會(huì)認(rèn)定它們就是？

這些草莓不是紅色的，為什么你的大腦會(huì)認(rèn)定它們就是?

These strawberries look red ­(almost), like fresh fruit should. But this tasty image doesn’t have any rosy hues in it at all. Zoom way in, and you’ll find that the pixels that make up this snack are actually shades of blue and green.

這些草莓看起來(lái)(幾乎)是紅色的，就像新鮮水果一樣。但這張美味的照片一點(diǎn)也沒(méi)有玫瑰色。放大一點(diǎn)，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)構(gòu)成這種零食的像素實(shí)際上是藍(lán)色和綠色的陰影。

You’re seeing scarlet because of a visual phenomenon called color constancy. We perceive color based on the wavelength of light an object reflects. But those wavelengths are always in flux. Color constancy helps us adjust to those changes, keeping an item’s tone the same even if its surroundings change dramatically. For example, if a sunset floods the light outside with a deep yellow, blue beach chairs will still look blue.

你能看到鮮紅色是因?yàn)橐环N叫做顏色恒常性的視覺(jué)現(xiàn)象。我們根據(jù)物體反射的光的波長(zhǎng)來(lái)感知顏色。但是那些波長(zhǎng)總是在不斷變化。顏色恒常性有助于我們適應(yīng)這些變化，即使周圍環(huán)境發(fā)生巨大變化，也能保持物品的色調(diào)不變。例如，如果日落時(shí)外面的光線被深黃色的沙灘椅淹沒(méi)，藍(lán)色的沙灘椅看起來(lái)仍然是藍(lán)色的。

Scientists once thought that color constancy was rooted solely in the brain, says David H. Foster, professor of vision systems at the University of Manchester in England. If the light shifted, altering the wavelengths reflecting off an object as a result, color receptors in the eye would adjust so the brain would see it in the same way regardless. But other experts argued that people used their experience to infer what a scene was supposed to look like—no photoreceptors involved.

英國(guó)曼徹斯特大學(xué)(University of Manchester)視覺(jué)系統(tǒng)教授福斯特(David H.Foster)說(shuō)，科學(xué)家們?cè)?jīng)認(rèn)為，顏色恒常性完全植根于大腦。如果光線移動(dòng)，從而改變了反射到物體上的波長(zhǎng)，那么眼睛中的顏色受體就會(huì)調(diào)整，這樣不管波長(zhǎng)怎樣變化，大腦仍可以以同樣的方式看到它。但其他專家認(rèn)為，人們利用自己的經(jīng)驗(yàn)推斷出一個(gè)場(chǎng)景應(yīng)該是什么樣的，而不受波長(zhǎng)影響。

The latest research suggests each mechanism plays a role. Neurons adjust to maintain consistency, but the memory of what a given object looks like is also essential. In the case of these berries, it’s the light source that turns a simple image into a full-blown illusion. Sensing the blue tint in the photo, our brains unconsciously but systematically subtract cyan from each gray pixel in order to restore the rose-colored berries we know we should see.

最新研究表明，每一種機(jī)制都起著作用。神經(jīng)元會(huì)調(diào)整以保持一致性，但對(duì)給定物體的記憶也是必不可少的。在這些漿果的例子中，是光源將一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的圖像變成了一個(gè)全面的幻覺(jué)。我們的大腦感應(yīng)到照片中的藍(lán)色，會(huì)無(wú)意識(shí)但有系統(tǒng)地從每個(gè)灰色像素中減去青色，以恢復(fù)我們知道應(yīng)該看到的玫瑰色漿果。