[MUSIC] This is the first part of the medic show, it's called Pinocchio Illusion, and we have Alice here to help us. >> Hi. >> All ready? >> Yes, so I'm going to introduce The Pinocchio Illusion. This was reviewed in a very famous paper by James Lackner in 1988, who reviewed a whole number of different proprioceptive and multi-sensory illusions. So for The Pinocchio Illusion, I'm going to first ask our two helpers here, to turn and face this direction. And in this illusion, Sylvia is only needed for her nose, and the real subject of the experiment is Alice. And Alice is going to experience how easy it is for people to experience a change in the sensation of parts of their body. So, first of all Alice, I'm going to ask you to use your left hand and reach out and try to find Sylvia's nose. Okay, and hold your hand there, and in the course of this illusion, I'm going to ask you to close your eyes, and I'm going to touch your nose, and I'm going to touch your finger, is that okay with you? >> Okay, yep, that's absolutely fine. >> So then, concentrate on the feeling you get, and when you start to feel something unusual, just say what you feel. >> Okay. >> Okay, so I'm going to make sure that your left hand is not touching any other part of Sylvia, other than her nose. Okay, so I'm going to take hold of your finger, and I'm going to move your finger to be touching Sylvia's nose while I'm synchronously tapping your own nose. Okay, so we'll start now. And the tapping I'm doing is quite irregular, it shouldn't be something predictable. >> It feels like my nose is really long. >> Can you describe that a bit more? >> It feels like my left hand is tapping my own nose. So, it feels like the end of my nose is really far away. >> Okay, so let me explain what's happening. So Alice was feeling on her fingertip and nose, while synchronously feeling on her real nose, my tapping. So the brain has a contradiction to resolve, which is, how come my hand is out there and it feels like I'm tapping a nose, and at the same time, my nose is feeling tapped? The brain doesn't like contradictions, it likes solutions, and the solution it comes up with, okay, so my nose is really that long, and that's as simple as it is. [MUSIC]