“It’s really important to understand we’re not seeing reality,” says neuroscientist Patrick Cavanagh, a research professor at Dartmouth College and a senior fellow at Glendon College in Canada. “We’re seeing a story that’s being created for us.”
“Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.
Our perception of reality is created in our brains and isn’t a true representation of the real world. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging scientists explored how our brains interpret optical illusions and compared brain activity to the subjects viewing a true recreation of the same illusion. Their hypothesis is that a comparison of the brain activities should indicate whether the illusion happens in the visual context or in some other part of the brain. And what they found seems to indicate that the visual processing in the brain isn’t fooled by the illusion, it happens in another part of the brain.
Dr. Mike Rubenstein of the New York Center for Magnetic Studies said, “This fMRI research being done at the NYCMS is expected to not only expand our understanding of how our brains interpret optical illusions but also how to induce similar illusions in other circumstances.”
Quirks and Curiosities 