Color illusion as a spatial binding problem

Illusions are often considered to be a misperception of the physical world. We present a different framework for illusions: in non-illusory conditions, healthy brains construct a single, consistent representation from the physiological processes that encode the world; illusions, in contrast, are conditions where the brain constructs conflicting representations of the world. We contend that the conditions for illusions often arise for color vision because of the multifaceted aspects of color in relation to space, and that many color illusions arise from the juxtaposition and selective recombination (i.e. the binding) of these aspects of color/spatial information. We discuss three spatial aspects of color: modes of appearance, color versus color contrast, and information at different spatial scales.