We tested Neon Color Spreading (which recently was studied in mice as well). Illusion: there is no blue disc, only blue lines! When we ran PGDD in the same network, the disk appears! Try it in the demo link below.

Remember: this isn't just a Kanizsa illusion model—it's ResNet50, which does complex object recognition on natural images close to training data. But when stimuli are unfamiliar (like Kanizsa), generative inference tries to make sense of the input.

How does our brain excel at complex object recognition, yet get fooled by simple illusory contours? What unifying principle governs all Gestalt laws of perceptual organization?

We may have an answer: integration of learned priors through feedback. New paper with @kenmiller.bsky.social! 🧵