FeaturedNeuroscienceOpen Neuroscience ArticlesVisual Neuroscience·May 31, 2022·4 min readThis Illusion, New to Science, Is Strong Enough to Trick Our ReflexesThe highly dynamic, new "expanding hole" optical illusion can be perceived by 86% of people. The illusion is so good at deceiving the brain, it causes pupillary dilation as though we are walking into a darkened room.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscience·July 8, 2021·5 min readThere’s a ‘Man in the Moon’: Why Our Brains See Human Faces EverywhereFace pareidolia, a phenomenon where the brain is tricked into seeing human faces in inanimate objects, may occur as a result of the brain processing the perceived facial expression in the same sequential way it perceives a human face.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceOpen Neuroscience ArticlesVisual Neuroscience·June 29, 2021·3 min readA New Kind of Visual Illusion Uncovers How Our Brains Connect the DotsA newly designed optical illusion is helping researchers better understand visual processing and perception. The illusion creates a subjective reality in what we see, highlighting the constructive nature of perception.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceVisual Neuroscience·December 20, 2020·5 min readVisual Illusion That May Help Explain ConsciousnessA new visual illusion sheds light on redundancy masking and how we perceive our visual environment. The findings provide new insight into human consciousness.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceVisual Neuroscience·August 24, 2020·4 min readOptical Illusions Explained in a Fly’s EyesIt seems that flies are as susceptible to optical illusions as humans. Turning on and off some neurons that govern motion detection in flies, researchers were able to alter the insects' perception of illusory motion.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceVisual Neuroscience·August 14, 2020·6 min readWhy the Brain Is Programmed to See Faces in Everyday ObjectsFace pareidolia, the phenomenon of seeing facelike structures in inanimate objects, is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when sensory input is processed by visual mechanisms that have evolved to extract social content from human faces.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceVisual Neuroscience·June 17, 2020·7 min readStudy sheds light on a classic visual illusionA new study sheds light on why we get tricked by a classic optical illusion. Researchers found brightness estimations occur before visual information reaches the visual cortex, probably originating in the retina.Read More
FeaturedNeurosciencePsychologyVisual Neuroscience·July 27, 2019·3 min readThe case against realityA new theory argues consciousness creates neural activity, and humans have evolved to see what is needed for survival. Perception, it is argued, is a user interface which may not necessarily be real.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceOpen Neuroscience ArticlesPsychologyVisual Neuroscience·July 9, 2019·4 min readRosy health and sickly green: color associations play robust role in reading facesFacial processing and color processing may engage in similar brain mechanisms.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceNeuroscience VideosVisual Neuroscience·May 31, 2019·4 min readWaterfall illusion: when you see still objects move – and what it tells you about your brainResearchers reveal what optical illusions tell us about the workings of the brain.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceVisual Neuroscience·May 21, 2019·4 min readOptical illusions reveal regular waves of brain activity enable visual feature integrationOptical illusions are helping researchers better understand attention and visual perception. Findings suggest attention operates periodically on the perceptual binding of visual information.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscienceVisual Neuroscience·February 18, 2019·3 min readBrain Represents Optical Illusion as Delayed RealityResearchers report the same subset of neurons encode actual and illusory flow motion, supporting the concept Jan Purkinje proposed 150 years ago, that "illusions contain visual truth".Read More
