How we study the brain - vision and perception

8 important questions on How we study the brain - vision and perception

What causes color after images? What does this tell us about color vision?

Opponent processing theory, which states that our cones send information to retinal ganglion cells that respond to pairs of colors (red-green, blue-yellow, black-white). These specialized cells take information from the cones and compute the difference between the two colors. After looking at one thing for two long we adapt and when we look away we will see the opposing color.

Why aren't you aware of your blind spot?

Because it is in two different positions on each eye the other eye just fills in the space as it will be able same as the stuff around it

When you are looking at a star in the sky at night, it is sometimes clearer if you look slightly away instead of right at it. Why?

Because at night/in dim light our rods are being used and not our cones, when we look directly at a star it is not bright enough for our cones to be activated and it is to bright for our rods, making it blurry. Our rods work better in dim light so it is best to look slightly away so there isn't as much light entering our eyes.
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What is perceptual constancy? What does it tell us about perception?


Perceptual constancy is when objects maintain their properties even when the context changes their physical characteristics, our brain continually takes the lighting into account when it decided how it should be interrupt the wavelengths coming in. Instead of seeing the actual wavelengths it subtracts lighting conditions to help it figure out what the wavelength should be and not what it actually is.

This tells us that our perception is not the physical world but actually what we think it should be.


We sometimes say that perceptual processing is hierarchical. What does that mean?

Vision involved multiple stages of processing beginning in the retina and continuing in many areas in the visual cortex and beyond. Visual processing becomes more complex as we move from earlier stages to later stages.

Can you think of other examples of top-down (or conceptual-driven) perception in your daily life? (2)

  • Reading
  • Driving

What do apperceptive, associative and prosopagnosia disorders tell us about visual recognition?

They tell us that there are different streams and areas for different visual recognition in the brain.

As a result of a brain injury, a patient is able to identify what objects are, but when they reach for the object, it isn't where they think it is. Which visual pathway do you think was affected?

Dorsal stream that goes through the parietal lobe

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