Our brains have a way of playing tricks on us — like that ringing in our ears known as tinnitus. It’s a sound in your head, created to make up for hearing loss. And that’s not the only way minds create the world we live in.

“I study whether The Matrix is a movie or a documentary,” Pascal Wallisch, a professor of data science, neuroscience, and psychology at NYU, told Vox. Whether our senses are simply transmitting objective reality — or creating an artificial, subjective one.

“Everything that you perceive is filtered for your sensory organs and then goes for your brain,” Wallisch said. “ If we assume that you have a unique brain — which I do — then you are bringing a lot of yourself to what you experienced.”

What are other ways things aren’t what they seem, and why do our brains function like this in the first place? We answered those questions on the latest episode of Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in podcast.

Below is an excerpt of our conversation with Wallisch, edited for length and clarity.

You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you’d like to submit a question, send an........

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