How the brain decides what’s real—and why it sometimes fails. It’s a foggy day in New York City. Through my computer screen, I believe I’m seeing and hearing neuroscientist Nadine Dijkstra. But how ...

Train mice to navigate in a virtual reality environment and monitor how experience in a virtual maze alters visually evoked brain activity. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Our visual system ...

A single phrase can follow you for a lifetime. For me, it was this: Perception is reality. It was one of the first lessons drilled into me during Plebe Summer at the U.S. Naval Academy. It felt like a ...

A few years ago I climbed over a gate and found myself gazing down at a valley. After I’d been walking for a few minutes, looking at the fields and the sky, there was a shift in my perception.

Our perception of reality feels stable and objective. We assume that what we see, hear, and feel reflects the truth. But what if perception isn’t a direct recording of reality? What if it’s a ...

In The Truman Show (1998), we see a modern parable of simulacra and hyperreality: Truman Burbank lives in a meticulously constructed, artificial reality designed for a TV audience, unaware that his ...

A University of Michigan survey of 1,000 rural Michigan residents reveals a striking gap between perception and reality when ...