News tagged with visual illusion

How the brain's architecture makes our view of the world unique

(PhysOrg.com) -- Wellcome Trust scientists have shown for the first time that exactly how we see our environment depends on the size of the visual part of our brain.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 05, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (25) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Discoveries shed new light on how the brain processes what the eye sees

Researchers at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN) at Rutgers University in Newark have identified the need to develop a new framework for understanding "perceptual stability" and how ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jun 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Best Visual Illusion of the Year: How a Curveball Works

(PhysOrg.com) -- Visual illusions sometimes seem to have a magical element to them, but they're actually just the brain's way of interpreting reality. In an effort to promote public knowledge of cognitive ...

Medicine & Health / Other

created May 13, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (13) | comments 2 weblog

Molecular visual illusion: Aromatic ring system reminiscent of M.C. Escher's Penrose stairs

(PhysOrg.com) -- Who hasn't seen M.C. Escher's famous picture of the stairs that appear to always go up even though they form a closed circle? This tricky visual illusion is also known as a Penrose stair, ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jun 10, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Why it's all a blur

Fake miniatures fool the brain, but only in photographs, say scientists. CSI and the BBC's new Sherlock Holmes have something in common, and it’s not crime-fighting. Both TV series have used camera trickery ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Sep 27, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Musical illusion fools audiences and performers, says researcher

(PhysOrg.com) -- Musicians take advantage of a previously undocumented musical illusion to change the way audiences hear their performances. Intriguingly, the performers themselves are generally unaware of what they are ...

Other Sciences / Other

created Jan 05, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Our nostrils share a rivalry too, study finds

Your nostrils may seem to be a happy pair, working together to pick up scents. However, a study published online on August 20th in Current Biology reveals that there can actually be a kind of rivalry betwee ...

Biology / Other

created Aug 20, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

'Curve ball' wins international illusion contest

Science has proven what baseball players have known for more than a hundred years, the curve ball is more powerful than the brain.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created May 26, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Best Visual Illusion Of 2010 Defies Gravity

On May 10, Japanese scientist Kokichi Sugihara claimed to have discovered a technology that every sixth grader knows to be impossible: a magnet that attracts wood. In front of a crowd of hundreds, he played a video showing ...

Other Sciences / Other

created May 11, 2010 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (7) | comments 2

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Actually, in its neurons

A novel research project spearheaded by the University of Leicester and part-funded by The Leverhulme Trust aims to shed new light on the way people perceive art.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Mar 25, 2010 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

No such thing as a break in a curveball?

The answer to the question of whose curveball breaks harder -- that of the Yankees' A.J. Burnett or the Phillies' Cole Hamels -- may be neither.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 3

Not just your imagination: The brain perceives optical illusions as real motion

Ever get a little motion sick from an illusion graphic designed to look like it's moving? A new study suggests that these illusions do more than trick the eye; they may also convince the brain that the graphic ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Feb 02, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0