{"id":30536,"date":"2025-06-26T09:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T09:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30536"},"modified":"2025-06-26T09:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T09:28:17","slug":"how-two-neuroscientists-view-optical-illusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30536","title":{"rendered":"How Two Neuroscientists View Optical Illusions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Best Illusion of the Year contest offers researchers, and participants, an opportunity to explore the gaps and limits of human perception.<\/p>\n

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Take a look at this video of a waiting room. Do you see anything strange?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Michael A. Cohen\u2019s \u201cThe Changing Room Illusion\u201d won second prize in the 2021 Best Illusion of the Year contest.<\/span>Best Illusion of the Year Contest\/Neural Correlate Society<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Perhaps you saw the rug disappear, or the couch pillows transform, or a few ceiling panels evaporate. Or maybe you didn\u2019t. In fact, dozens of objects change in this video, which won second place in the Best Illusion of the Year Contest<\/a> in 2021. Voting for the latest version of the contest opened on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Illusions \u201care the phenomena in which the physical reality is divorced from perception,\u201d said Stephen Macknik, a neuroscientist at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn. He runs the contest with his colleague and spouse, Susana Martinez-Conde.<\/p>\n

By studying the disconnect between perception and reality, scientists can better understand which brain regions and processes help us interpret the world around us. The illusion above highlights change blindness, the brain\u2019s failure to notice shifts in the environment, especially when they occur gradually.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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To some extent, all sensory experience is illusory, Dr. Martinez-Conde asserts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always constructing a simulation of reality,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have direct access to that reality. We live inside the simulation that we create.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Dr. Macknik have run the illusion contest since 2005. What began as a public outreach event at an academic conference has since blossomed into an annual competition open to anyone in the world.<\/p>\n

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The Best Illusion of the Year contest offers researchers, and participants, an opportunity to explore the gaps and limits of human perception.Take a look at this video of a waiting room. Do you see anything strange?Michael A. Cohen\u2019s \u201cThe Changing Room Illusion\u201d won second prize in the 2021 Best Illusion of the Year contest.Best Illusion of the Year Contest\/Neural Correlate SocietyPerhaps you saw the rug disappear, or the couch pillows transform, or a few ceiling panels evaporate. Or maybe you didn\u2019t. In fact, dozens of objects change in this video, which won second place in the Best Illusion of the Year Contest in 2021. Voting for the latest version of the contest opened on Monday.Illusions \u201care the phenomena in which the physical reality is divorced from perception,\u201d said Stephen Macknik, a neuroscientist at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn. He runs the contest with his colleague and spouse, Susana Martinez-Conde.By studying the disconnect between perception and reality, scientists can better understand which brain regions and processes help us interpret the world around us. The illusion above highlights change blindness, the brain\u2019s failure to notice shifts in the environment, especially when they occur gradually.To some extent, all sensory experience is illusory, Dr. Martinez-Conde asserts.\u201cWe are always constructing a simulation of reality,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have direct access to that reality. We live inside the simulation that we create.\u201dShe and Dr. Macknik have run the illusion contest since 2005. What began as a public outreach event at an academic conference has since blossomed into an annual competition open to anyone in the world.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30538,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30536"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30539,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30536\/revisions\/30539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}