Mona Lisa smiling Its all in your eyes
Mystery Solved: Retina Cells Determine Whether You Can See Her Smile
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October 26 2009 | Times of India Bangalore
Neuroscientists at the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain claim to have solved the mystery as to why some people see the Mona Lisa smile and some dont .
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According to boffins, Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa is both smiling and not smiling, depending on what cells in the retina pick up the image and through what channel the image is transmitted in the brain.
According to boffins, Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa is both smiling and not smiling, depending on what cells in the retina pick up the image and through what channel the image is transmitted in the brain.
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Sometimes one channel wins over the other, and you see the smile, sometimes others take over and you dont see the smile , says Luis Martinez Otero, a neuroscientist at Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain, who conducted the study along with Diego Alonso Pablos.
To get a fuller picture of the reasons behind Mona Lisas vanishing smile, Martinez Otero and Alonso Pablos varied different aspects of the Mona Lisa that are processed by different visual channels, and then asked volunteers whether they saw a smile or not.
To start with, the duo asked volunteers to look at the painting in varying sizes from varying distances. When the volunteers moved in closer, or viewed a larger copy, they began to see the smile and the larger the picture more likely they were to see it. This suggests that retinal cells that process deadcentre vision convey information about the smile just as well as the cells that contribute to peripheral vision.
Sometimes one channel wins over the other, and you see the smile, sometimes others take over and you dont see the smile , says Luis Martinez Otero, a neuroscientist at Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain, who conducted the study along with Diego Alonso Pablos.
To get a fuller picture of the reasons behind Mona Lisas vanishing smile, Martinez Otero and Alonso Pablos varied different aspects of the Mona Lisa that are processed by different visual channels, and then asked volunteers whether they saw a smile or not.
To start with, the duo asked volunteers to look at the painting in varying sizes from varying distances. When the volunteers moved in closer, or viewed a larger copy, they began to see the smile and the larger the picture more likely they were to see it. This suggests that retinal cells that process deadcentre vision convey information about the smile just as well as the cells that contribute to peripheral vision.
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Eye gaze also affects how volunteers see the smile, Martinez Otero says. With a minute to gaze at the painting, volunteers tended to focus on the left side of her mouth when judging her as smiling further evidence that dead-centre vision picks out the smile.
Eye gaze also affects how volunteers see the smile, Martinez Otero says. With a minute to gaze at the painting, volunteers tended to focus on the left side of her mouth when judging her as smiling further evidence that dead-centre vision picks out the smile.
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So did Leonardo intend to sow so much confusion in the brains of viewers, not to mention scientists Absolutely, Martinez Otero contends. He wrote in one of his notebooks that he was trying to paint dynamic expressions because thats what he saw in the street. ANI
So did Leonardo intend to sow so much confusion in the brains of viewers, not to mention scientists Absolutely, Martinez Otero contends. He wrote in one of his notebooks that he was trying to paint dynamic expressions because thats what he saw in the street. ANI
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