Illusions

Part 1 of this five-part series of shorts introduces the world of the visual scientist. Beyond boggling your mind, Prof. Arthur Shapiro explains how and why you see what you see -- and what part of what you see is actually "real", as opposed to how your mind fills in the blanks.

Professor Arthur Shapiro shows how the brain processes retinal impressions from light and dark.

Professor Arthur Shapiro shows how the brain is challenged to process some stimuli from the eyes and sometimes guesses what is being seen.

Artists like M.C. Escher played with our visual perception in their art. In this 4th installment of the series, Prof. Arthur Shapiro returns to the classic visual illusions that show us that what we see is not exactly in plain sight.

Professor Shapiro offers more challenging questions about the way we see as he shows how light that hits the retina is interpreted by the brain, and looking at whether you can see something before you know what you are looking at.

Professor Shapiro shows how some images can prompt two equally valid interpretations. Rather than settling on one interpretation, our brains tend to switch among all of them, leading to some baffling and astonishing visual.