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Vision is a 'Reflex'

Posted by Hemos on from the understanding-the-brain dept.

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."

4 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. pr0n? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What are the pr0n implications of this study?

  2. IN SOVIET RUSSIA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    In Soviet Russia, psychologist not bother with existential perception theory; sends you to gulag with massive daily thorazine dose.

  3. IN SOVIET RUSSIA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    World sees YOU!

  4. LSD teaches this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I learned this simple "fact" by doing LSD when I was 16. Seriously, one of LSD's reported effects is that a person sees things "as they really are." After tripping a lot I realized that most of the time that I look at things I don't really look at them. LSD prevents this mechanism from functioning. You can get this idea just from thinking about how one day someone will seem like they grew a whole lot, they didn't grow quickly you just weren't really seeing them. I should have written a paper on it....