The notion that vision results from light rays being emitted by the eyes, extramission, originated over 2,000 years ago, but was finally disproved by Kepler around 1600. Yet extramission continues to hold sway, not only in much popular thinking but also as some form of explanation for various visual phenomena. It is suggested that extramission today is a concept that concerns not the eyes and optics but gaze and perception.
ClineR. H. (1972).
Heart and eyes. Romance Philology,
25, 263–297.
2.
CottrellJ. E.WinerG. A. (1994).
Development in the understanding of perception: The decline of extramission perception beliefs. Developmental Psychology,
30, 218–228.
3.
CottrellJ. E.WinerG. A.SmithM. C. (1996).
Beliefs of children and adults about feeling stares of unseen others. Developmental Psychology,
32, 50–61.
GrossC. G. (1999).
The fire that comes from the eye. Neuroscientist,
5, 58–64.
6.
GrüsserO.-J.HagnerM. (1990).
On the history of deformation phosphenes and the idea of internal light generated in the eye for the purpose of vision. Documenta Ophthalmologica,
74, 57–85.
7.
LindbergD. C. (1976). Theories of vision from al-Kindi to Kepler.
Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
8.
SchottG. D. (2007).
Exploring the visual hallucinations of migraine aura: The tacit contribution of illustration. Brain,
130, 1690–1703.
9.
SchottG. D. (2018).
Gombrich and ‘Pictures that follow with their eyes’. Journal of Art Historiography,
19, 1–11.
10.
TitchenerE. B. (1898).
The feeling of being stared at. Science,
8, 895–897.
11.
WilkinsonF. (2004).
Auras and other hallucinations: Windows on the visual brain. Progress in Brain Research,
144, 305–320.
