The illusions of time, truth, and aesthetic medicine

Source: Laboratory of Jonathan Flombaum—Johns Hopkins University
Reaching for objects, walking without hitting obstacles, landing on a chair as you sit (instead of falling to the floor), these and all our physical actions depend on an ability to perceive our own bodies in space, to know where our limbs are relative to one another and relative to the rest of the world. One way that the human brain encodes this information is called proprioception, the brain relies on its own control and...

Here, we describe virtual-hand and virtual-face illusion paradigms that can be used to study body-related self-perception/-representation. They have already been used in various studies to demonstrate that, under specific conditions, a virtual hand or face can be incorporated into one's body representation, suggesting that body representations are rather...

We demonstrate how an objective measure can be employed in the widely employed rubber hand illusion paradigm. This measure is obtained by modifying the well-established crossmodal congruency task. This task allows the investigation of multisensory processes which are critical for modulations of body representations as in the rubber hand...

This protocol describes a method for etching text, patterns, and images onto the surface of silica aerogel monoliths in native and dyed form and assembling the aerogels into mosaic...

Microorganisms play a fundamental role in vaccine development, gene therapy, and therapeutic production. Their biological properties are harnessed to advance medicine and public health. Beyond immunization, microorganisms contribute to gut health, antibiotic synthesis, and genetic disease treatment.Live Attenuated and Inactivated VaccinesLive attenuated vaccines, such as the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, utilize weakened forms of pathogens to closely resemble natural infections.

Asymmetric information occurs when one party in a transaction has more knowledge about the product than the other, potentially leading to market inefficiencies. In cases where buyers cannot directly evaluate the quality of a product before purchase, strategies such as reputation building, warranties, and third-party certifications are effective in addressing this problem by promoting transparency and trust.Reputation plays a central role in reducing information asymmetry by signaling consistent...