Philosopher Thomas Nagel's famous essay on knowing what it's like to be a bat. His essay underscores the logical barrier we face whenever we struggle to understand the perceptual world of another creature.

Bats emit high-pitched calls, some used for social communication and others used for echo-location (described in Chapter 11). Hear samples of bat calls, some that have been acoustically modified to bring normally inaudible acoustic events into your audible range.

Throughout the text readers encounter human brain mapping results obtained using the technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Here is a relatively non-technical explanation of what is actually measured in an fMRI experiment.

In the Charles Bonnet syndrome visual hallucinations are experienced by blind people. The C.B.S. is as fascinating as it is perplexing.

Perception is a topic that forces students to think about the mind/body problem, an age-old philosophical issue. This website gives you definitions of terms encountered when talking about the relation between mind and brain (including definitions of dualism, skepticism, realism).

Can humans perceive things that fall outside of awareness? This controversial subject -- subliminal perception - and the evidence bearing on its existence are critiqued here and here.

Illusions figure prominently in the study of perception. Here are some excellent websites where you can experience illusions (in some cases interactively) and read more about the bases of illusions. Michael Bach's site adopts a broad definition of illusion. Nice selection of Auditory and visual illusions, with some explanations of each, and nice demos, some interactive