Magicians, have studied, understood and thus exploited human cognitive responses and illusions for as long as history permits our vision. The human mind’s response to stimuli, is exploited by the magician. A phenomenon called lateral inhibition, where the activation of a neuron by a stimulus, inhibits the activation of neighbouring neurons which prevent the brain from responding to a stimulus when it is pre-engaged due to some other activity. Focusing on the rabbit pulled out from the hat, enables the magician to perform the actual trick, a card from his sleeve! The human visual system also depends on contrast and the magician exploits this to make objects seem like they appear or disappear from thin air! Multiple other neuroscientific processes are also exploited by the magician, not one at a time, but a combination of these, in order to perform a mind-blowing trick on your mind.
