Magicians and Neuroscientists

I love a good magic show. Magicians and neuroscientists have teamed up to write a scientific paper. As described by the New York Times,

In a paper published [July 30] in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, a team of brain scientists and prominent magicians described how magic tricks, both simple and spectacular, take advantage of glitches in how the brain constructs a model of the outside world from moment to moment, or what we think of as objective reality.

The paper, Attention and awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into research, is available to read for free. The paper is an outgrowth of a conference last year, of which some videos are also available for viewing. A few specific tricks are explained, but the discussion is mostly about general principles.

Incidentally, if you spend any time paying attention to the skeptics movement, you'll find the involvement of magicians. James Randi, one of the authors of the paper, is particularly prominent. Their expertise in deception, as part of their craft, gives them insight into evaluating paranormal claims. After all, they do make their living by appearing to do or know impossible things.

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