Abstract
A light beam hitting the retina produces an excitatory process; however, around the edge of the light beam, sensory cells are inhibited and lose their sensitivity. This combination of stimulation and inhibition produces a discrepancy between the luminance pattern presented to the eye and the brightness pattern that is observed. The black and white Mach bands are the best known distortions of this type. It is this interaction that can produce a line that is physically not present in the stimulus, and is different from the usual lines we see.
Keywords: vision, Mach bands, retinal receptors, luminance, optical illusion
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