Much of the research on magic focuses on eye movements since illusions become important inroads to the brain. Slight of hand magician tricks rely on quick hand movements which the brain doesn’t follow due to other distractions of attention such as laughter or gestures the magician makes.
The whole issue of laughter and the connection between emotions and attention are also being studied. Researchers feel these could be key in understanding how to treat the cognitive decline of people with Alzheimers. Presently, neuroscience has a controversy over what is emotion and where it is based. Yet this is fundamental to understanding our consciousness.
Another aspect being studied is “joint attention”. As a magician looks at a particular object, the audience follows his gaze. Not so for autistic children. They have trouble picking up joint attention cues. That inattention could be valuable in evaluating those with autism. As the research continues, it will be interesting to see how our understanding of Alzheimers and autism becomes more clear.
