What our eyes can’t see, the brain fills in

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have shown that when parts of our vision are blocked, the brain steps in to fill in the blanks. The team from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology conducted a series of experiments that showed how our brains predict what cannot be seen by drawing on our previous experiences to build up an accurate picture. The results show that our brains do not rely solely on what is shown to the eyes in order to 'see'. Instead the brain constructs a complex prediction. Lars Muckli, from the University's Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology said: 'We are continuously anticipating what we will see, hear or feel next. If parts of an image are obstructed we still have precise expectation of what the whole object will look like. 'When direct input from the eye is obstructed, the brain still predicts what is likely to be present behind the object by using some of the other inputs to come up with best 'guesses'.