10. The Rubber Hand Illusion
The Rubber Hand Illusion is a mind-bending experiment from cognitive neuroscience. When a fake rubber hand is stroked in perfect sync with a person’s hidden real hand, many begin to genuinely feel that the rubber hand is part of their own body. This illusion demonstrates how the brain constructs our sense of body ownership based on sensory input. Experiments like those described here reveal just how flexible—and sometimes unreliable—our perceptions of self and physical reality can be.