Illusion Archives - Knowing Neurons

Feature image depicting a brain in the center of a circle with a visual illusion background. On the left is a hand, palm up, holding a heart. On the right, another hand is tentatively reaching out to grab it. Designed by Alexa Erdogan.

McKenna Becker April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 Bias, Blind spot, Cognition, Empathy, Illusion, Neuroplasticity, Optic nerve, Perception, philosophy, Photoreceptor, Politics, R.L. Gregory, Reality, Retina, Stroop Test, Top-Down Processing, V.S. Ramachandran, Visual Illusions

Understanding Visual Illusions Can Make Us More Empathetic

Philosophers and neuroscientists agree that if there is an objective reality, human beings can’t perceive it: philosophers refer to objective reality as a perception independent of any conscious awareness. Neuroscientists… Read More

Brain Books by Knowing Neurons. The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman. Illustrated by McCall Sarrett & Jooyeun Lee.

Brain Books Big Ideas Consciousness Evolution of Cognition Sensation and Perception

Joel Frohlich December 6, 2019December 7, 2019 Brain Books, Cognition, Color, Consciousness, Evolution, Evolutionary Game Theory, Hallucination, hard problem of consciousness, Illusion, Interface Theory of Perception, mathematics, Motion, Necker Cube, Occam's Razor, Orientation, Perception, Physicalism, Psychology, Quantum mechanics

Book Review and Author Interview: The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman

A full interview with Donald Hoffman follows this book review Does the moon still exist when you’re not looking at it? In a provocative new book titled The Case Against… Read More

Consciousness Big Ideas Philosophy

Chris Frith September 29, 2017October 6, 2017 agency, choice, Consciousness, Epicurus, Free Will, Illusion, Mopan Maya, morality, Perception, philosophy, stoic

Our Illusory Sense of Agency Has a Deeply Important Social Purpose

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m trying to concentrate on writing this piece, but my two grandchildren in the room next door have stopped making paper aeroplanes and started arguing. ‘You kicked me,’ yells Freya.… Read More

Consciousness Big Ideas Philosophy Sensation and Perception

DanielToker June 28, 2017September 24, 2017 Brain in a Vat, Consciousness, Gilbert Harmanm, Hallucination, Illusion, Perception, Rene Descartes, The Matrix

We Are All Brains in Vats

The Matrix made all of us ask the same disturbing questions: How do I know that the world I see, hear, and touch is real? Can I prove that I’m… Read More

Sensation and Perception Did You Know?

Kate Fehlhaber September 28, 2016June 30, 2017 Acuity, Blind, Cat, Cataracts, Color, Critical Period, Deprivation, Development, Hubel, Illusion, Kitten, Light, Monocular, Oversegementation, Perception, Perceptual, Project Prakash, See, Sight, synaptic plasticity, Touch, Vision, Visual, Visual cortex, Wiesel

When the blind can see again: A critical question of perception

Our sense of sight is arguably our most important sense. Imagine how different your life would be if soon after birth, you lost the ability to see. For over 1.4… Read More