The SciencesMay 1, 2010
A Perspective on 3-D Visual Illusions
What the leaning tower and related illusions reveal about how your brain constructs 3-D images
Stories by Susana Martinez-Conde
Susana Martinez-Conde is a professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is author of the Prisma Prize–winning Sleights of Mind, along with Stephen Macknik and Sandra Blakeslee, and of Champions of Illusion, along with Stephen Macknik.
Mind & BrainMay 1, 2010
The Neuroscience of Illusion
How tricking the eye reveals the inner workings of the brain
The SciencesMay 1, 2010
Food for Thought: Visual Illusions Good Enough to Eat
Face or food? The brain recognizes edible artwork on multiple levels
The SciencesMay 1, 2010
The Illusion of Love
How do we fool thee? Let us count the ways that illusions play with our hearts and minds
The SciencesMay 1, 2010
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 SciencesMay 1, 2010
Colors Out of Space
Colors can change with their surroundings and spread beyond the lines
The SciencesMay 1, 2010
The Neuroscience of Yorick's Ghost and Other Afterimages
Staring at images can temporarily reset retinal cells and cause ghostly visions
Mind & BrainOctober 6, 2009
Illusions: What's in a Face?
This is the ninth article in the Mind Matters series on the neuroscience behind visual illusions
Mind & BrainApril 7, 2009
The Neuroscience of Yoricks's Ghost and Other Afterimages
This is the eighth article in the Mind Matters series on the neuroscience behind visual illusions.
Mind & BrainFebruary 12, 2009
Optical Illusions and the Illusion of Love
How do we fool thee? Let us count the ways--that illusions play with our hearts and minds
Mind & BrainJanuary 21, 2009
Sculpting the Impossible: Solid Renditions of Visual Illusions
Artists find mind-bending ways to bring visual illusions called impossible figures into three-dimensional reality.
Mind & BrainDecember 1, 2008
Magic and the Brain: How Magicians
Magicians have been testing and exploiting the limits of cognition and attention for hundreds of years. Neuroscientists are just beginning to catch up
Mind & BrainNovember 18, 2008
Art as Visual Research: 12 Examples of Kinetic Illusions in Op Art
Art and neuroscience combine in creating fascinating examples of illusory motion
Mind & BrainOctober 21, 2008
Illusions: Motion from Brightness
How dynamic changes in brightness cause you to see movement where there isn't any
Mind & BrainOctober 1, 2008
A Perspective on 3-D Illusions
Paint and architectural illusions provide clues to how your brain reconstructs 3-D images
Mind & BrainAugust 26, 2008
Illusions: The Eyes Have It
Eye gaze is critically important to humans, as social primates. Maybe that's why illusions involving eyes are so compelling.
Mind & BrainJuly 8, 2008
A Perspective on 3-D Visual Illusions
What the Leaning Tower and related illusions reveal about how your brain reconstructs 3-D images.
Mind & BrainJune 1, 2008
Ask the Brains: What are ideas? Does Confidence Affect Performance?
Mind & BrainMay 28, 2008
The Neuroscience of Illusion
How tricking the eye reveals the inner workings of the brain
Mind & BrainApril 1, 2008
Subconscious Sight
People with "blindsight" can correctly deduce the visual features of objects they cannot see. Such visual intuition can even exceed what is possible with normal vision
Mind & BrainOctober 1, 2007
Skewed Vision
Seeing things clearly, new evidence suggests, may be even harder than we thought
Mind & BrainAugust 1, 2007
Windows on the Mind
Once scorned as nervous tics, certain tiny, unconscious flicks of the eyes now turn out to underpin much of our ability to see. These movements may even re?veal subliminal thoughts