Stereopsis is the ability to use both eyes to perceive depth, space, and dimension from flat images. Most of us do this without thinking. But some people with misaligned eyes, can’t do it all. Neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone explains how stereopsis, or rather the lack thereof, informs the art of some very famous artists—Picasso, Hopper, Chagall, Rembrandt, and others—and how their abnormal vision may have influenced the way they depict space on the canvas.

Recorded June 2009; Posted July 2011