3.3 Making Sense of the Senses

Imagine putting on a blindfold and noise-canceling headphones: you can no longer see or hear.

Could you find your way home without help?

Probably not.

To move effectively, the brain needs information about the world around us. Senses — like vision, hearing, and touch — collect that information. The human brain integrates sensory signals to form a representation of the world and of the body we live in.

But what happens when sensory information conflicts?

The rubber hand illusion, which you can try here, reveals how the brain constructs a sense of bodily self. The participant feels touch on their hidden real hand, while watching a rubber hand being touched in perfect sync.

If done correctly, many people report feeling the rubber hand as if it were theirs — even while knowing it isn’t.