Sometimes you can't believe anything that you see. More importantly, the researchers have identified areas of the brain where what we're actually doing (reality) and what we think we're doing (illusion, or perception) are processed.

Daniel Moran, Washington University assistant professor of biomedical engineering and neurobiology, and University of Pittsburgh colleagues Andrew B. Schwartz, and G. Anthony Reina, focused on studying perception and playing visual tricks on macaque monkeys and some human subjects. They created a virtual reality video game to trick the monkeys into thinking that they were tracing ellipses with their hands, though they actually were moving their hands in a circle. They monitored nerve cells in the monkeys enabling them to see what areas of the brain represented the circle and which areas represented the ellipse. They found that the primary motor cortex represented the actual movement while the signals from cells in a neighboring area, called the ventral premotor cortex, were generating elliptical shapes. Monkey thought it saw, then monkey didn't do.

The research shows how the mind creates its sense of order in the world and then adjusts on the fly to eliminate distortions.

For instance, the first time you don a new pair of bifocals, there is a difference in what you perceive visually and what your hand does when you go to reach for something. With time, though, the brain adjusts so that vision and action become one. The ventral premotor complex plays a major role in that process.

"Previous studies have explored when things are perceived during an illusion, but this is the first study to show what is being perceived instead of when it is happening," said Moran. "People didn't know how it was encoded. And we also find that the brain areas involved are right next to each other." >from *Researchers pinpoint brain areas that process reality, illusion by Tony Fitzpatrick. February 10, 2004

related context
> brain is a dynamic network: new paradigm for how the brain functions. october 15, 2003
> nature of reality: buddhism and science. october 1, 2003
> fantasy and reality: handled by different parts of the brain. april 8, 2002

imago
> change hue for the real illusion