Every illusion has a backstage crew. New research shows the brain’s own “puppet strings”—special neurons that quietly tug our perception—help us see edges and shapes that don’t actually exist. When ...

Your brain is lying to you right now. Not maliciously, and not because something’s wrong with it. It’s doing exactly what evolution designed it to do, making split-second decisions about the world ...

Allen Institute researcher Jerome Lecoq points to one of the diagrams that was used in a study focusing on how the brain interprets optical illusions. (Allen Institute Photo / Erik Dinnel) Our brains ...

An illusion is when we see and perceive an object that doesn't match the sensory input that reaches our eyes. In the case of the image below, the sensory input is four Pac Man–like black figures. But ...

A bizarre optical illusion tricks your brain into seeing colours in a black and white spinning disk.

Our eyes do not always tell us exactly where things are – and that may be a feature of how biological vision works, rather than simply a flaw. A new study by York University researchers uses a common ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. A video showing an unexpected optical illusion captured in a parking ...

Researchers investigate how mice process illusions, highlighting the neural circuitry involved in seeing and perception. An illusion is when we see and perceive an object that doesn’t match the ...

Most people use the terms “optical illusion” and “visual illusion” interchangeably, much like “fluid” and “liquid” or “sofa” and “couch” are synonyms. At first glance, this might be seemingly pedantic ...

You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. Optical illusions are hard to figure out — they involve a lot of science and a solid understanding how the eyes and ...

Susana Martinez-Conde is director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. She studies visual illusions to gain a better understanding of how ...