Mind & BrainJanuary 1, 2014
Filling in the _________
Your brain fills in all kinds of visual gaps
Stories by Stephen L. Macknik
Stephen L. Macknik is a professor of opthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Along with Susana Martinez-Conde and Sandra Blakeslee, he is author of the Prisma Prize-winning Sleights of Mind. Their forthcoming book, Champions of Illusion, will be published by Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
December 16, 2013
Ask Me Anything: The Neuroscience of Magic at PeerJ
Tomorrow (Tue 16th Dec at 8 am PST) the journal PeerJ will host a live Ask Me Anything session with us, and our collaborator Hector Rieiro (a PhD candidate in the Macknik Lab).
November 14, 2013
Illusion of the Week: Japanese Food-Chain Breaks the Curse of OCHOBO!
Horking down a huge honking burger--American style--is considered unladylike in Japan. So Freshness Burger uses an unconventional approach to maintaining Ochobo--the Japanese cultural practice of maintaining small delicate mouth features in women.
November 6, 2013
Fat Tuesday: Why stress leads to obesity
Stress is transient Type II diabetes, even when you’re otherwise healthy.
Mind & BrainNovember 1, 2013
Visual Neurons Cheat by Focusing on Corners
The brain's resources are limited. By focusing on angles, curves and line endings, your visual neurons can cut corners
October 22, 2013
Wide Faces Make You Selfish
An intriguing new paper in PLoS ONE by Haselhuhn and colleagues suggests that men with wide faces make you selfish.
September 29, 2013
Sight and Sound: An Evening with John Williams and Steven Spielberg
We’re sitting in the front row of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, listening to the musicians warm up for the dress rehearsal of tonight’s benefit concert starring John Williams, his movie music, and guest starring Steven Spielberg.
September 16, 2013
Join Us At The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University in Tel-Aviv
For those of you who are in Israel today or tomorrow, come join us at The Gonda Center for free presentations on illusions and visual perception.
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
All Deceptions Great and Small
Does size matter? To your brain, it doesn't
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Truer Than Truth
Trompe l'oeil illusions challenge your perception
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
A Perspective on 3-D Visual Illusions
What the leaning tower and related illusions reveal about how your brain constructs 3-D images
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Your Twisted Little Mind
Illusions that distort your perception
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
What's In a Face?
The human brain is good at identifying faces, but illusions can fool our “face sense”
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Colors Out of Space
Colors can change with their surroundings and spread beyond the lines
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Afraid of Shadows
Spooky illusions trick and treat your brain
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
What It Means to Be You
You are more than a robot searching for food and mates
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Yorick's Ghost and Other Afterimages
Staring at images can temporarily reset retinal cells and cause ghostly visions
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Urban Illusions
Street artists use the city as their canvas
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
The Neuroscience of Illusion
How tricking the eye reveals the inner workings of the brain
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
No Brain, No Pain
Pain is an emotion
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
The Illusions of Love
How do we fool thee?
Let us count the ways that illusions play with our hearts and minds
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
The Eyes Have It
Eye gaze is critically important to social primates such as humans. Maybe that is why illusions involving eyes are so compelling
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Perfectly Timed Advertising
Marketing illusions that make time fly
The SciencesSeptember 12, 2013
Sculpting the Impossible: Solid Renditions of Visual Illusions
Artists find mind-bending ways to bring impossible figures into three-dimensional reality