Optical illusions are tricks that trick our eyes into perceiving things that aren’t there. They mess with our brain’s ability to comprehend what we perceive.
One sort of illusion is the “impossible object,” which appears to be real yet cannot exist in reality.
Drawings of stairs that move up and down at the same time, for example. Another form is the “ambiguous illusion,” which occurs when your brain cannot decide which way to perceive things.
This occurs with images such as the classic “duck or rabbit” drawing. Optical illusions demonstrate that our eyes and brains do not always see things in the same way, telling us about how our minds work and how things are not always as they appear.