Puzzling things happen in human perception when ambiguous or incomplete information is presented to the eyes. For example, illusions, or multistable figures occur when a single image can be perceived in several ways.
In the Oxford Mathematics Christmas Public Lecture Ian Stewart demonstrates how these phenomena provide clues about the workings of the visual system, with reference to recent research which has modelled simplified, systematic methods by which the brain can make decisions.
Ian Stewart is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics in the University of Warwick.