• Question: can you tell me something you have found out recently about how our brains work to help us see things ?

    Asked by becketts12 to Sarah, rhysphillips, Ian, Helen, David on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: David Corne

      David Corne answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      This is really one for Ian. But I’m reminded of a wonderful experiment from long ago, which also relates to the “can your brain be rewired’ question. Some experiments were done where people wore special goggles, 24hrs for a few days I think. The goggles turned the world upside down. Eventually people kept falling over, acting as if they were drunk. But eventually it became normal to them and they could move around with confidence. Then, when the goggles were taken off, they kept falling over again.

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      There’s a great optical illusion of a spinning spiral disc – if you stare at it for long enough, and then look away, stationary objects look like they are changing size in the opposite direction to that which the spirals were turning. Something to do with the brain becoming used to the spirals and so things taht are staying still are perceived as moving in the opposite way.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      People who are blind are sometimes able to use echo location by making clicking noises just like a dolphin, the areas of the brain that are responsible for this are associated with vision, and not sound as the researchers had though it would be.

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