See If Your Brain Can Handle the McGurk Effect
The brain plays a pivotal role in our existence and yet we know very little about it. Projects such as the more than $300 million Brain Initiative and the EU’s Human Bain Project are truly focused on understanding the complexity of the human brain.
This only reveals how much unknowns there are for every known we discover. It is a endeavour into an alien world and while the discoveries there might boggle us, the knowledge we already possess doesn’t fail to surprise us too often either.
Take for example; the McGurk Effect is one such surprising capability of the brain in failing to distinguish with visual and auditory cues. In the video below, a person is shown initially making the “bah” sound. Later into the video, he is depicted making the “fah” sound but here is where it gets tricky. We don’t want to spoil the video for you but we recommend that you watch it first before read the explanation that has been added after it.
Source: BBC. “Try The McGurk Effect! – Horizon: Is Seeing Believing? – BBC Two”. YouTube. Uploaded on Nov 10, 2010.
Here’s what you should be looking out for. When the person is seemingly mouthing the “fah” sound, look away from the screen and close your eyes to focus on the audio only. You will notice that the “bah” sound is actually being played!
