What can the chance discovery of an illusion tell us about how our eyes and brains work together? Ben Balas from North Dakota State University talks with us in episode 37 about his research into the Flashed Face Distortion Effect, an illusion in which normal faces – when rapidly presented in people’s peripheral vision – are perceived as grotesque and distorted. His article, “Factors that do and don’t affect the strength of the Flashed Face Distortion Effect”, written with Hannah Pearson, was posted to the PsyArxiv pre-print server on June 5, 2018.