https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIObYaZBn_U
Experimental neuroscientist Beau Lotto shows how our perception and conception of the world reflects our past physical, social and cultural interactions.
Optical illusions show how we see
http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see
Beau Lotto's color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can't normally see: how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how evolution tints your perception of what's really out there.
Science is for everyone, kids included
http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_amy_o_toole_science_is_for_everyone_kids_included
What do science and play have in common? Neuroscientist Beau Lotto thinks all people (kids included) should participate in science and, through the process of discovery, change perceptions. He's seconded by 12-year-old Amy O'Toole, who, along with 25 of her classmates, published the first peer-reviewed article by schoolchildren, about the Blackawton bees project. It starts: "Once upon a time ... "
Beau Lotto: A beautiful mind -- deepening our understanding of perception, creativity...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K0tVtXQJ5A
A beautiful mind -- deepening our understanding of perception, creativity and how the brain learns
Beau Lotto, Director of Lottolab, University College London, Director, Beautiful Mind Ltd and CEO, Ripples Inc
"He who is not busy being born is busy dying" -- Bob Dylan
Adaptation is the life-blood of any individual, and it has two parts. There is the application of an adaptation, focusing on process and efficiency. In a static world such efficiency -- being able to adapt well -- is essential to survival.
But what about an uncertain world? In such an environment, the other side of adaptation is paramount -- the creative side. And our world, of course, is uncertain, and increasingly so. Given that, why is it that we so often focus on efficiency at the expense of creativity?
Here, using perceptual neuroscience, Beau Lotto will address three key points about creativity:
What actually is creativity?
Why fear and stress are the principle barriers to achieving creativity
How can one facilitate creativity?
Beau will focus principally on perception because it underpins everything we know, think, feel and believe, from our best inventions to our most basic psychoses. Understanding how the brain resolves uncertainty offers direct insight to the 'destructive creation' that is the process of learning itself.
Beau Lotto is a globally renowned neuro-scientist who specialises in perception research, and has for years wowed the world of science with work that blurs the boundaries between neuro-science and the arts. As well as bending the science of perception, he is also trying to transform the way people think not just about themselves but also about the world around them.