Grouping • 2017 • episode "S1E5" • Illusions

Category: Brain

Prof. Shapiro offers us more challenging questions about the way we see as he shows us how light that hits the retina is interpreted by the brain. Can you see something before you know what you are looking at? Check out these illusions and find out!

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

Illusions • 2017 • 8 episodes •

Reality?

Part 1 of this eight-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.

2017 • Brain

Brightness and Contrast

Brightness and Contrast

In part 2, Prof. Arthur Shapiro takes us through visual illusions that show how our brain processes retinal impressions from light and dark. Watch as things "move" while they are standing still. It will be hard to believe your eyes after watching this program!

2017 • Brain

Motion

In part 3, Prof. Shapiro shows us that the brain is challenged to process some stimuli from the eyes and sometimes "guesses" what you are seeing. Join him as he takes us through visual perception challenges like the "Curveball Illusion". Has he thrown you for a loop yet?

2017 • Brain

The Classics

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.

2017 • Brain

Grouping

Prof. Shapiro offers us more challenging questions about the way we see as he shows us how light that hits the retina is interpreted by the brain. Can you see something before you know what you are looking at? Check out these illusions and find out!

2017 • Brain

Ambiguous Images

Ambiguous Images

Professor Shapiro shows us how some images can prompt two, or even three, 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 experiences.

2017 • Brain

Impossible Objects

Impossible Objects

Professor Shapiro shows us a range of objects that seem simple and unremarkable at first glance, but which on closer examination simply cannot be constructed in reality – or are not at all what they seem.

2017 • Brain

Perspective Games

Perspective Games

Professor Shapiro reaches back into history to show that artists, architects and mathematicians have also employed visual “tricks” to baffle and entertain us by manipulating perspective and challenging our ideas of what is real and what is fake.

2017 • Brain

You might also like

Nostalgia Trip

A plush country house is fixed with surveillance cameras while a group of unwitting test subjects are first exposed to youthful memories to test if it can improve their health. Dr Mosley takes them on this nostalgia trip with the help of neuroscientist Dr Jack Lewis and psychologist Anna Machin to determine how reliable memories really are.

S1E1 • Meet the Humans • 2017 • Brain

Crimes Against Humanity

Crimes Against Humanity

International criminal lawyer Patricia Viseur Sellers investigates the role of perpetrators, from leaders to followers, as well as those who resist the power of hate.

S1E5 • Why We Hate • 2019 • Brain

Hacking Your Mind

Hacking Your Mind

(4 episodes merged) Jacob Ward sets out to discover we are not who we think we are. We imagine our conscious minds make most decisions, but in reality we go through much of our lives on "autopilot". Marketers and social media companies rely on it. Hacking Your Mind offers you an autopilot owner's manual.

2020 • Brain

Confessions of a Brain Surgeon

Confessions of a Brain Surgeon

Renowned neurosurgeon Henry?Marsh, reflecting on decades of life-and-death decisions and now facing his own terminal illness, revisits haunting failures and searching for redemption in a deeply personal and emotionally powerful journey.

Horizon • 2025 • Brain

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

So you say you love your computer or smartphone...but can it love you back? As we become more dependent on technology, and our technology becomes more lifelike, where does the line between human and computer lie? And what happens when our relationships become romantic? In this episode of Mind Field, I look into Artificial Intelligence.

S1E4 • Mind Field • 2017 • Brain

Augmented

Follow the dramatic personal journey of Hugh Herr, a biophysicist working to create brain-controlled robotic limbs. At age 17, Herr’s legs were amputated after a climbing accident. Frustrated by the crude prosthetic limbs he was given, Herr set out to remedy their design, leading him to a career as an inventor of innovative prosthetic devices.

NOVA PBS • 2022 • Brain