This is more of a “heads up” than highlighting any particular discovery, but Medical News Today has a review of a fascinating collaboration between neuroscientists and stage magicians:
“We have spent the last few years traveling the world, meeting magicians, researching their art, and collaborating with them on our study of the brain,” says Dr. Martinez-Conde, director of the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience. “Magicians do cognitive science experiments for audiences all night long and they may be even more effective than we scientists are in the lab.”
Drs. Macknik and Martinez-Conde accepted faculty appointments at Barrow in 2004 and their research into vision and cognition is now a focal point at Barrow, the largest neurosurgical facility in the United States.
“We are on a fascinating journey about the neural underpinning of magic and the brain,” says Dr. Macknik, director of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurophysiology. “If we fully understand how magicians hack our brains, we will unveil the neural bases of consciousness itself.”
You can’t believe your eyes, right?