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DANA FOUNDATION CEREBRUM | Fall 2021
HE RT ZB ER G IEL
N A L TO OPENLY DEM ONSTRATE TH E PRINCIPLES OF SLEIGHT hand before hu OF ndreds of neur opsychiatrists. Yet I fo und myself d oi ng just that at the vi rtual Americ an Neuropsychiatric Ass ociation conf erence in March of 2021 . While simul taneously studying neur obiology at th e University of Pennsylvan ia and perform ing sleight o f h a n d m a gi c sh o w s at ve n u e s in the Philadelp hia area, I was recruited by two rese archers to co llaborate on their talk: “The Neuropsy chiatry of Magic.” In my portion, I exp lained how magicians ta ke advantage of limitations in our p erceptual syst ems, the narrowness of our attention, and the ease with whi ch our mem ories can be manipulat ed.
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S A MAGICIA N, IT ’S U N C O N V E N T IO
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After receiving his degree in neurobiology from the University of Pennsylvania, our author decided to pursue a career as a magician, a profession that requires a unique understanding of how the mind works (and the best ways to fool a brain).