Recent studies are uncovering how optical illusions exploit the brain’s predictive coding system, revealing the interplay between perception, imagination, and reality. Researchers are finding ...

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 ...

While new optical illusions go viral all the time, here are some of the most famous illusions that have kept us scratching our heads for years.

Bored Panda has released a 108-image optical illusion gallery showcasing mind-bending photos from the ‘Confusing Perspective’ community, alongside features on illusion artists like Dudi Ben Simon. The ...

Think you can trust your eyes? Think again. What feels undeniable at first glance is sometimes a surprise, an illusion, or an ...

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 ...

SEATTLE, WASH.—September 15, 2025—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 ...

As you scroll through this article, your brain is hard at work creating the mental world you live in. You probably have a seamless sense that you’re embedded in a world full of other people, objects, ...

Music is known to increase well-being and activate brain regions involved in social processing. A new study shows these ...

Hold a pencil upright in front of your face. Close one eye, look at the pencil, then open that eye, and close the other. Did you notice that your view of the pencil shifted slightly when you looked ...

Near-death experiences continue to challenge the scientific understanding of consciousness: how can vivid and structured reports be explained at moments of extreme physiological failure? This is the ...

In certain diseases you have patterns of activity that emerge in your brain that are abnormal, and in schizophrenia these are related to object representations that pop up randomly” — Jerome Lecoq, Ph ...