Hosted by: Vivian Stojanoff

Contacts: Jane Koropsak, (631) 344-4909 or Peter Genzer, (631) 344-3174 Visual Neuroscientist Susana Martinez-Conde to talk on "Neuromagic" at Brookhaven Lab, 10/23 Susana Martinez-Conde, director of the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience, SUNY Down State Medical Center, will give a talk at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory on Thursday, October 23, 2014, at 4:30 p.m., in the Physics Department Large Conference Room, Building 510A. Sponsored by Brookhaven Women in Science, the event is free and open to the public. All visitors to the Laboratory 16 and older must bring a photo I.D. Susana Martinez-Conde is the co-founder of an exciting new discipline: neuromagic. The implications of neuromagicâ€"as this emerging research field is being calledâ€"go beyond illuminating our behavior; early research points to new approaches from the diagnosis of autism to marketing techniques and education. In her talk titled "Sleights of Mind" she will talk about her worldwide studies exploring magic and how its principles apply to our behavior. Illusions are perceptual experiences that do not match physical reality. The study of illusions is critical to understanding the basic brain mechanisms of sensory perception, as well as to curing various neural diseases. Martinez-Conde will discuss how the theory and practice used by magicians and illusionists can contribute to the investigation of the brain's powers of observation. Magic tricks can be cognitive illusions that fool the hardwired processes of attention and awareness in the human brain. The illusion community studying these techniques includes visual scientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, painterpainters, mathematicians and graphic designersâ€"all of whom may use a variety of methods to unveil the underpinnings of illusory perception.