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Monday, March 12, 2007

Blind Spots and Brain Extrapolation

Cool thing I learned today:

Every human eye has a blind spot where the optic nerve passes through the retina. The visual cortex automatically fills in these blind spots by extrapolating what should be there based on the surrounding detail. Since a person's two blind spots do not overlap, the brain can cross-reference the eye data when both eyes are active.

You can indirectly perceive your own blind spot by using the image below. Sit very close to your screen with your right eye covered, and focus on the word "Barbecue." Maintain that focus while slowly moving away from the screen, and at a particular distance the puppy will disappear although the purple lines and the word "Worms" will still be visible. If you change your gaze, the puppy will no longer be in the blind spot, and it will reappear.





Cool!

Brain extrapolation. I like that idea. It explains a lot about how I perceive the world. I think my extrapolator works in overdrive most days. I can take an ancient pottery shard and the writings of Aristotle and extrapolate the entire history of Western Civilization.

My hubby can take a guilty-looking puppy and a yellow puddle in the kitchen floor and conclude our roof must have a leak. Ack!

I think his extrapolator beez buss up.

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