Perception puzzles, Visual Perception, Optical illusions and Paradoxes This page illustrates that our visual perception cannot always be trusted. The components of an object can distort the perception of the complete object. Our mind is the final arbiter of truth. Most optical illusions are the result of 1) incongruent design elements at opposite ends of parallel lines, 2) influence of background patterns on the overall design, 3) adjustment of our perception at the boundaries of areas of high contrast, 4) afterimages resulting from eye movements or from kinetic displays, or 5) inability to interpret the spatial structure of an object from the context provided by the picture. The Parthenon Optical illusions have been studied for millenia. Perpetually ascending staircase. The red squares are the same color in the upper part and in the lower part of the "X" The diagonal lines are parallel. There are no gray spots at the corners of the squares. Stairway between corners of a flat square. The rows of black and white squares are all parallel. Impossible triangle.
Thoughts on Neuroplasticity I recently read a fascinating book, The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. He describes case histories and research indicating that the brain is far more malleable than we once thought. We used to think each function was localized to a small area of the brain and if you lost that area of brain tissue the function was gone forever. We once thought you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks. Now we know better. Learning a new skill actually changes the structure and function of the brain, even into old age. One of the more intriguing experiments he describes was in monkeys. Researchers hypothesized that the monkeys had “learned” that one arm didn’t work in the period right after the surgery when the spinal cord was still in spinal shock, and then never re-learned that they could use it when the shock passed. Patients with phantom limb pain often have the illusion that the phantom limb is unable to move. Much of chronic pain is learned behavior.
How Music Hijacks Our Perception of Time - Issue 9: Time One evening, some 40 years ago, I got lost in time. I was at a performance of Schubert’s String Quintet in C major. During the second movement I had the unnerving feeling that time was literally grinding to a halt. The sensation was powerful, visceral, overwhelming. It was a life-changing moment, or, as it felt at the time, a life-changing eon. It has been my goal ever since to compose music that usurps the perceived flow of time and commandeers the sense of how time passes. The human brain, we have learned, adjusts and recalibrates temporal perception. We conceive of time as a continuum, but we perceive it in discretized units—or, rather, as discretized units. In recent years, numerous studies have shown how music hijacks our relationship with everyday time. Also in Music The Necessity of Musical Hallucinations By Jonathan Berger During the last months of my mother’s life, as she ventured further from lucidity, she was visited by music. Footnotes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
The Evolutionary Psychology of Human Sex and Gender By Daniel Pouzzner, 2000-Apr-11/12 Sexuality is an indispensable mechanism whereby biological evolution bridged the immense gap between asexual/Lamarckian unicellular organisms, and the now plainly preeminent humans. For tens of millions of generations, the lineage leading to humanity has been formed and continued exclusively by sexual procreation. The precise microbiological mechanics of sexuality vary widely from species to species, while the functional consequences - strictly sexual procreation, in which each individual has precisely two parents, each contributing roughly half of the individual's genome - is absolutely conserved. In this essay, I give an overview of the differences between the male and female human phenotypes, concentrating on mental distinctions. The only universal genetic difference between a male human and a female human is that the male has an additional chromosome, ``Y'', and it is by far the smallest of all. Human ovulation is concealed, not advertised.
For neuroscientist the eye is a window to mind's workings (12/6/2007) Sabine Kastner likes to show people that the difference between Darth Vader and Yoda is largely a matter of perception. "Put these glasses on," she says, offering a pair of goggles with two different-colored lenses, "then look at the screen and tell me what you see." A glance at her laptop reveals the visage of Vader, the dark-helmeted nemesis of Jedi Knights from the "Star Wars" films, on the screen. But tell her so, and Kastner then asks, "Are you sure you don't see anything else?" As though succumbing to a Jedi mind trick, the viewer's brain suddenly morphs Vader's helmet into the wizened face of the elfin creature Yoda -- an image that was always there, but only visible to the left eye. "Visual perception is not a passive thing where you just open your eyes and take everything in. A new approach to old questions About two decades ago, Kastner was majoring in philosophy at Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany. An eye on the problem "He's my continual motivation," she said.
How the Science of Swarms Can Help Us Fight Cancer and Predict the Future | Science The first thing to hit Iain Couzin when he walked into the Oxford lab where he kept his locusts was the smell, like a stale barn full of old hay. The second, third, and fourth things to hit him were locusts. The insects frequently escaped their cages and careened into the faces of scientists and lab techs. The room was hot and humid, and the constant commotion of 20,000 bugs produced a miasma of aerosolized insect exoskeleton. Many of the staff had to wear respirators to avoid developing severe allergies. In the mid-2000s that lab was, however, one of the only places on earth to do the kind of science Couzin wanted. Couzin would put groups of up to 120 juveniles into a sombrero-shaped arena he called the locust accelerator, letting them walk in circles around the rim for eight hours a day while an overhead camera filmed their movements and software mapped their positions and orientations. Couzin wanted to know what if-then rules produced similar behaviors in living things.
The "Johnny Depp Effect" - An evolutionary explanation for homosexuality Who is more attractive as a mate? A guy who is kind or a guy who is cruel? A guy who is sensitive or a guy who lacks empathy ? A guy who is physically attractive or a guy who is homely? A guy who can appreciate art or the guy who only appreciates ESPN? Now consider who is more likely to be gay. This exercise in mate preferences (and stereotypes , please excuse us) serves to illustrate a simple point: Gay men are attractive. Two recent articles suggest that these women are on to something. Again, scientists have known for some time that sexual orientation has a genetic component. It was once hypothesized that such a trait could be maintained via kin selection. Hypotheses demand empirical tests, and when the kin selection hypothesis of homosexuality was tested by David Bobrow and Michael Bailey of Northwestern University and later by Qazi Rahman and Matthew Hull of the University of East London, it was not supported. References
Neuronal Circuits Able To Rewire On the Fly To Sharpen Senses (12/19/2007) Researchers from the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), a joint project of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, have for the first time described a mechanism called "dynamic connectivity," in which neuronal circuits are rewired "on the fly" allowing stimuli to be more keenly sensed. The process is described in a paper in the January 2008 issue of Nature Neuroscience, and available online at This new, biologically inspired algorithm for analyzing the brain at work allows scientists to explain why when we notice a scent, the brain can quickly sort through input and determine exactly what that smell is. "If you think of the brain like a computer, then the connections between neurons are like the software that the brain is running. When a stimulus such as an odor is encountered, many neurons start to fire. "This mechanism helps to explain why you can walk into a room and recognize a smell that seems to be floral.
You May Have Been Born to Flock | Science More than 70,000 people will flood into the Superdome in New Orleans this weekend, while thousands more swarm through the city’s French Quarter. From a certain perspective, might those Super Bowl fans resemble, say, a herd of wildebeest or school of fish? Or maybe a murmuration of starlings? After all, collective behaviors are found across the animal kingdom — and regardless of our penchant for Shakespeare and beer helmets, humans are animals, too. Some scientists think the essential components of flocking behavior, an instinctive tendency to join with others and follow their lead, remain alive inside us. “Where does this pull come from?” In “Spontaneous flocking in human groups,” a paper published in the January issue of Behavioral Sciences, Boos and colleagues describe an attempt to isolate underlying flocking mechanisms hinted at by the large-scale behaviors sometimes seen in crowds. 'Maybe we could trace our flocking back to fish. Some benefits of flocking might be straightforward.
Why Atheists Are More Intelligent Than the Religious It is natural to believe in God, so more intelligent individuals are more likely to be atheists. Religion is a cultural universal, and its practice is observed in every known human society. However, as I explain in earlier posts (Why do we believe in God? These theories contend that the human brain has been selected to agency – personal, animate, and intentional forces – behind otherwise natural phenomena whose exact causes cannot be known. If these theories are correct, then it means that religiosity – belief in higher powers – may have an evolutionary origin. It may therefore be reasonable to conclude that atheism may not be part of the universal human nature, and widespread practice of atheism may have been a recent product of Communism in the 20th century. Once again, analyses of large representative samples from both the United States and the United Kingdom support this prediction of the Hypothesis .
How to Trick Your Brain for Happiness This month, we feature videos of a Greater Good presentation by Rick Hanson, the best-selling author and trailblazing psychologist. In this excerpt from his talk, Dr. Hanson explains how we can take advantage of the brain’s natural “plasticity”—it’s ability to change shape over time. gobyg There’s this great line by Ani Tenzin Palmo, an English woman who spent 12 years in a cave in Tibet: “We do not know what a thought is, yet we’re thinking them all the time.” It’s true. In recent years, though, we have started to better understand the neural bases of states like happiness, gratitude, resilience, love, compassion, and so forth. Ultimately, what this can mean is that with proper practice, we can increasingly trick our neural machinery to cultivate positive states of mind. But in order to understand how, you need to understand three important facts about the brain. Fact one: As the brain changes, the mind changes, for better or worse. Fact two: As the mind changes, the brain changes. 1. 2. 3.
300+ Mind Expanding Documentaries I watch a lot of documentaries. I think they are incredible tools for learning and increasing our awareness of important issues. The power of an interesting documentary is that it can open our minds to new possibilities and deepen our understanding of the world. On this list of mind expanding documentaries you will find different viewpoints, controversial opinions and even contradictory ideas. Critical thinking is recommended. I'm not a big fan of conspiracy documentaries but I do like films that challenge consensus reality and provoke us to question the everyday ideas, opinions and practices we usually take for granted. Watching documentaries is one of my favorite methods of self-education. [1] Life In The Biosphere Explore the wonder and interconnectedness of the biosphere through the magic of technology. [2] Creativity and Design: Learn about all the amazing things that people create with their imaginations. [3] The Education Industrial Complex: [4] The Digital Revolution: [6] Politics:
Counter-Rotating Spirals Illusion More Java applets here. If your browser supports Java, you should see an animated image above (generated by a Java applet embedded on the page). Otherwise, you should see a static image. Instructions for Viewing the Illusion: Sit about 50 cm (20 inches) from the screen. Look at the center of the spiral for about 20 seconds. The User Interface: Start/Stop Button The Start/Stop button starts/stops the applet's rotation thread. Detach/Attach Button The Detach Button detaches the applet from the Web page and places the applet in its own frame window. Speed Control The Speed Control varies the speed of the animation in a range of 1 through 120 RPM. History of this Illusion The illusion is an example of the "Motion Aftereffect" phenomenon. This effect was described in the early 19th century by R. In 1935, the artist Marcel Duchamp produced a set of 12 rotating optical illusions called Rotoreliefs. In the 1970's, a number of Psychologists were actively studying the phenomenon. Jerry says: Dr.