Vision is a 'Reflex'

kernkopje writes "A recently publicized book by two neurobiologists at Duke University introduces an interesting emperical theory on vision. Rather than postulating a visual system that generates a picture of what actually exists in front of the viewer, they theorize that evolution, as well as life experience, has created a visual system in which perceptions represent what a given visual stimulus has typically signified in the past. Admiring the view from a high building, staring at a beautiful woman, shapes, colors, textures, it's basically all the same knee-jerk response... The news release is here, read more about the concept here. Their lab work & results can be found here."