ITHACA, N.Y. -- The tricks eyes play on the mind will be revealed and explained in a Sept. 14 lecture by master illusionist Al Seckel at 7:30 p.m. in Cornell University's Call Alumni Auditorium.

Titled "Your Mind's Eye: The World's Most Powerful Illusions" and sponsored by the Cornell Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, the lecture is open to the public, free of charge. Advance tickets are available from the Willard Straight Hall ticket office or the neurobiology department office, W363 Mudd Hall, (607) 254-4340.

According to Seckel, who is said to have amassed the world's largest collection of optical illusions and publishes many in books for adults and children, "Illusions can provide a wonderful window into how the brain works by revealing hidden, underlying mechanisms in a way that normal perception fails to do."

A scientist in the California Institute of Technology's Division of Computational and Neuronal Systems as well as a frequent lecturer at academic institutions and scientific societies worldwide, Seckel focuses his research on how the brain processes visual and other sensory illusions by examining the electrophysiology and neuroanatomy of the human nervous system.

Seckel's faculty host at Cornell, Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior Ronald Hoy, said the Sept. 14 lecture "should appeal to people of all ages who have a sense of wonderment about the visual world around them. The world is not necessarily as it appears, and Al Seckel is going to show us why -- or why not."

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Al Seckel: http://neuro.caltech.edu/~seckel/#home