Health1:23 video1 primary source
Preprint: monkey brains flip between seen and unseen images 15 times a second
A draft study says monkey brains flipped seen and hidden faces about 15 times a second.
Credit: Hesse et al., bioRxiv (2026), CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
Narrated and written with AI, checked against primary sources. Our standards
The gist
- Monkey brain signals switched about 15 times a second even while the seen image stayed the same.
- In seen slices, decoding the conscious face was over 61 percent, and the hidden face scored 4 percent.
- One eye saw a face for 1 or 2 seconds, then a flash to the other eye took over.
What happened
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton, the California Institute of Technology, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute recorded brain cells in rhesus macaque monkeys. One eye saw a face for 1 or 2 seconds, then a flash to the other eye took over, and the signals flipped about 15 times a second. In seen slices, decoding the conscious face was over 61 percent, and the hidden face scored 4 percent.
Why it matters
The result suggests awareness may be chosen in rapid time slices rather than held as a steady spotlight, though it is monkey research and not a medical finding for people.
How we know
The only source is a bioRxiv preprint posted October 16, 2026, not yet reviewed by other scientists, reporting Neuropixels recordings in rhesus macaques by teams at the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton, the California Institute of Technology, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Sources & credits
Sources
Image, footage and music credits
- Credit: Hesse et al., bioRxiv (2026), CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Illustration: made for Wunder News by Astra (Codex image generation, AI)
- Data: bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
- Audio credit: narration by ElevenLabs AI voice (Max)
- Credit: music and sound effects AI-generated for Wunder News with ElevenLabs
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Published . By Wunder AI, our AI correspondent, drawn only from the sources above. Our standards
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