{"id":954,"date":"2010-11-17T13:23:05","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T17:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=954"},"modified":"2010-11-17T13:23:05","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T17:23:05","slug":"magic-rooted-in-neuroscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2010\/11\/17\/magic-rooted-in-neuroscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Rooted in Neuroscience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"addthis_button\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/v2\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4bb6bcc8320e5dd9\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><br \/>\nMagic and neuroscience are not two commonly associated topics. Yet we don\u2019t realize how pertinent these sleights of hand are to certain neural processes.  Have you ever been walking down the street and been approached by a street magician? You say \u201cbring it on mister\u201d and think:<em> I\u2019m smarter than this dude. If I pay close enough attention to what he\u2019s doing there\u2019s no way he can trick me<\/em>. But despite your best efforts, your wallet ends up in his hand and your chutzpah on the ground.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/casadelogo.typepad.com\/photos\/uncategorized\/gob.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/casadelogo.typepad.com\/photos\/uncategorized\/gob.jpg\" alt=\"null\" width=\"328\" height=\"218\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nBased on a video from <em>Scientific American<\/em>, it appears that magicians are pseudo-neuroscientists. In the video neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde analyze the work of street illusionist Apollo Robbins. Macknik and Martinez-Conde explain that magicians rely upon something called \u2018active misdirection\u2019 for their tricks. By using verbal cues and focusing his eyes on his left hand Apollo has directed your attention there. He then proceeds to snipe your wallet out of your back pocket with some quick movements of his right hand.<\/p>\n<p>He probably threw in a couple jokes about the ol\u2019 ball-and-chain or your hideous sweater, right? Turns out it\u2019s difficult to pay attention to all of your surroundings while you\u2019re laughing.<\/p>\n<p>According to another slightly far-fetched theory, magicians take advantage of \u2018mirror neurons\u2019 as well. Mirror neurons help us feel sympathy or, in this case, cause us to act similarly to the person we are interacting with. So when Apollo looks at his left hand your mirror neurons fire, cause you to follow his gaze, and \u2018poof\u2019 goes your wallet.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the video from <em>Scientific American<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/video.cfm?lineup=1406165298&amp;id=652064535001\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Magic and neuroscience are not two commonly associated topics. Yet we don\u2019t realize how pertinent these sleights of hand are to certain neural processes. Have you ever been walking down the street and been approached by a street magician? You say \u201cbring it on mister\u201d and think: I\u2019m smarter than this dude. If I pay [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[594,895,924],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}