What I would like you to do is to find a topic from chapter 1 (from AM about the painter) that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
By integrating/synthesizing I mean to take what your read/experienced from the internet search (and from chapter 1 if you like) organize the information into the main themes, issues, info, examples, etc. about your topic and then write about the topic in your own words using that information. This is hard for some people to do - many students write what we refer to as "serial abstracts." They are tempted to talk about the websites rather than the topic proper. They will talk all about website #1, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #2, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #3, and then write some kind of conclusion. Serial means one after the other...This what you DON'T want to do!
At first it is a real challenge to get out of the habit of writing "serial abstracts," but I assure you once you get the hang of it it is much easier to write using the integration method. And besides this is the way researchers and scientists write their technical reports and findings - many of you will have to be able to do this for other classes and for jobs that you may eventually be hired for so now is a good time to learn this skill. At this point don't worry about a grade, worry about doing your best to have fun with the topic and then integrate it into your own words to share what you found and now know. We will work on citing the sources later....
Let me know if you have any questions.
Topic: Quit Smoking & Save Your Vision
The topic I chose to blog about discusses the relationship between smoking and vision loss. This topic fits into chap.1 because Mr.I was a smoker. The men who worked with Mr.I throughout the reading mentioned briefly that they questioned if Mr.I's long time habit of smoking contributed to his major loss of color perception. I also chose this topic because I find it interesting. Smoking is known as a terrible habit with major health risks however losing your vision or color perception is not commonly associated with smoking. I thought it would be interesting to read an article describing why smoking causes harm to vision and tie it back in our chap 1 reading.
I. AMD (age-related macular degeneration)
AMD is the leading cause of blindness in people over 65. This disorder is known to cause progressive damange to the center of the retina known as the macula. The retina has to role of delivering fine details in our vision process. The degeneration of the macula causes people to experience blurriness or darkness. Eventually AMD will prevent people from being able to see fine details such as reading, driving, recognizing objects, places, and even faces. Smoking is the second more common risk factor of causing AMD.
II. Smoking and AMD
In this article, researchers conducted a study on 1,958 women with the baseline age of 78. Only four percent of these women, 75 women, were smokers. The purpose was to evaluate whether the smokers had a higher risk of developing AMD. The researchers compared the rentina images of these women and research showed that the women who smoked had an 11% higher rate of AMD than other women their age.
III. Conclusion
Being diagnosed with AMD means patients will begin to lose sight slowly. At first, their surroundings will becomone blurry,dark, and undefined. However, once AMD has reached its full potential, patients won't be able to drive,read, and even recognize loved ones. Though age is the main factor that causes AMD, smoking increases this risk even more. Cirgarette smoking alters blood flow in the eyes and decreases retinal pigments therefore leaving a smoker with blurry vision and undefined surroundings.
Before this assignment I had never heard or known about AMD. However, this article shares a lot of interesting information about a disorder linked to smoking that effects a persons vision. The research that was conducted on the women in the article proves that smoking will increase the risk of person experiencing AMD. AMD is not a disorder that will slowly take away your vision. However, it will slowly make a person become unaware of distinct figures, faces, surroundings, and more. This disorder will take away a persons ability recognize the street they live on, their home, their pets, friends, and family. In the reading Mr.I was said to be a smoker. Though he didn't experience AMD and instead lost his color perception completely it would have been interesting if the men working with Mr.I looked further into his smoking habits and loss of color perception. It is becoming more & more aware that smoking effects a persons mental health and in Mr.I's case, I feel like his long time habit of smoking may not have caused his loss of color vision but instead contributed to the severity of his situation. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/01/smoking_blindness.html
I am a lover of art and diddle in the creation of art myself. How someone would do these things unable to percieve colors is beyond me. The entire conundrum of painting with a lack of ability to see the color one is painting is odd, and fascinating. Knowing that the subject, Mr I, is probably not the only colorblind artist led me to want to search out if there were any other artists who suffered form achromatopsia. Interestingly enough Mr I is no longer alone in the world of colorblind artists.
These guys are talented beyond belief. I say "guys" because the only artists I found were men, which is not entirely surprising because colorblindness is far more common in men than in women (its a chromosomal thing, ya know). One of these men was born with achromatopsia (complete colorblindness) but has an unstoppable a passion for art, and another has some strange undiagnosed disorder that leaves him unable to see some colors some of the time, and completely without color at other times. Both these men love their art, and they both are loud and boisterous with thier color use. It's so interesting to look at their work and see how colors are used in new and unusual ways, and yet the pictures are still beautiful. I like to wonder if the lack of a set of beliefs on "correct" coloring allow these men to produce art that is truer to the emotion or thought they are trying to evoke than art that is restricted by the correctness? When texture and movement etc. take front seat to the blueness of sky and paleness of skin wouldn't those more subtle aspects of painting become more important to the artist, and subsequently for the viewer? The story of Mr I touched on this sort of thought when discussing how his painting style had evolved and he found a new depth to his art. Mr I continued to paint in mostly grey scale, but these artists use color, bright color! and lots of it!
More exciting than the use of color when you cannot see it is the thought of painting by ear. There is a device being used by a completely colorblind artist which allows him to hear the colors that appear in his line of sight. Like a synesthete, he paints so that it sounds beautiful to him, scales of color and sound mingling together on one canvass. I would love to see and hear his art the way he does. This is so neat! Really the only way to see how cool this stuff is is to check it out yourself, so heres some links, I hope they work!
http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/jay-lonewolf-morales-colorblind-painter-extraordinaire/art
http://claironledger.com/article/20100829/FEAT05/8290326/1020/FEAT/Strokes-of-genius--colorblind-artist-paints-with-his-heart
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article3423446.ece
I'm going to very assertively force myself to learn about at least one of the theories mentioned in this chapter by using the topic for my web divergence. This week I'm just going to pick one of them, and the first one that caught my eye was Goethe's Color Theory. Color theories such as this have everything to do with cognitive psychology. We as human beings identify things based on qualities/characteristics of objects that make them stand out from everything else. The theory, according to AM, seems to revolve around a term Goethe called "Color constancy." By the way the book explains it, it seems that people categorize colors in such a way that objects can be readily identified. An example provided by AM was the color of an apple. Sometimes the apples vary in the exact shades of red, but it's still close enough or in the same "category" of color that we can still identify the apple by it's color.
(Link 1)
http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/ch.html
This link seems to agree with a lot of what AM describes in the color theory. It does an adequate job describing that Goethe's Color Theory (GCT) helps people categorize colors. What AM does not explain as well as this website is that GCT tends to be more subjective than Newton's Classical Color Theory (NCCT). NCCT is a physical way of interpreting color. NCCT involves light coming into our eyes, striking our rods and cones, and having a message sent to our brain essentially telling us "Hey, this apple is RED." GCT, however, describes colors as more of a psychological problem and our experiences help us identify/categorize color.
(Link 2)
http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/?p=4183
This link is in complete agreement with both Link 1 and AM. In fact, a lot of the information about GCT is repeated from one source to the next. The post is about how Goethe looked at color in a way that wasn't really supported by physicists (past and present), but he was very accurate in terms of his experiments as far as measurements were concerned. What's surprising to me about this article is that it discusses that even though he was so precise with his measurements, they seemed to be the least important part of color interpretation to Goethe. Goethe really put the emphasis on the phenomena of experiencing color. The sensation and interpretation of color was what Goethe really focused on. That is another consistency between all of the sources.
(Link 3)
http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-basics/color-theory/color-psychology-quick-reference-cards.13826.html
I had briefly glanced at this and had almost decided to pass over it and find something else for my third article. I came back to it and reread it and felt this has EVERYTHING to do with GCT. These are some interpretations of how color should be used in advertising, clothing, and design. This article assumes that certain colors are associated with certain emotions and can encourage a certain response from people. For instance, the article describes the color white as something people use to represent purity in the case of a wedding dress; sterility in the case of hospital clothing; and is a very neutral color because it doesn't clash with other colors. The concepts on this website seem to agree with the fact that color is a psychological experience that people have, but at the same time it suggests that in general people share similar experiences in reacting to it.
One thing that really stuck with me in the reading was the fact that he lost color in his dreaming. I dream in vivid colors and color is something that really sticks with me when I wake up from a dream. A lot of times when I cannot remember exactly what a dream was about I can remember the exact colors of something in the dream and I find it interesting that that sticks with me. It is then devistating to me that he lost color in his dreams as well as in his daily life because now he has lost color altogether. He is no longer able to experience it in any aspect of his life. I decided I wanted to look more up on this topic, seeing if this is a normal thing that happens when people lose something related to their sight if it parallels in their dreams ect. Not only with his experience but with people who are just mainly colorblind or people who are blind altogether and how they experience dreams.
Many people will tell you that you dream about what you know, a reasoning for why you do not die in your dreams. This statement expresses a lot about what I found about dreaming and the way we experience the world when we are awake. The three sights all talked about this and elaborated on it in different ways.
People who are colorblind or blind at birth will only experience things that they have known from their lives. Blind people will experience the other sights to a greater degree in their dreams and create ideas in their head based on what they feel and smell on a cognitive level. Those who are colorblind from birth will also only see the colors they have experience in life. If a banana in real life to them is indistinquishable from yellow and green because they see it that way it will be the same way in their dream.
When it comes to those who lose their sight or something to that affect later in life, it can be a different story. Mr. I lost his colorsight in his dreams, but this isn't always the case. Some people can retain their sight for color in their dreams and still experience this in their dreams. People who become blind after experiencing sight earlier in life can still see things in their dreams, it all just depends on the individual.
As far as dreams go though, blind people will tend to describe their dreams visually. This type of description does not mean that they experienced actual vision in their dreams, but they more experienced the dream in a way that they do in real life and they equate that to their daily lives (as an experience and nothing less). It is hard to imagine an imageless dream, being someone who has not lost their sight, but it is probably just as equally hard for someone who is blind to imagine dreaming something as a visual that they have never seen before.
Something that we talked about in class was the fact that not everyone dreams in color who can see color. This type of thing clashes with the first statement I said about people dreaming about what they experience. One of the websites gives a figure for the amount of people who dream in black and white as being 12%. While none of the websites gave a good reasoning for this, one did mention that it could be because certain people don't focus on the color in their dreams, so they might just remember the dream as being black and white. Whether or not this is the answer is up for interpretation.
There is a lot of possibility for research in this area, as dreams will always be a part of the human experience. It is tragic that Mr. I had to lose his color in life and in dreams, but it would be interesting to see why this happened when it is possible to retain color in dreams (as discussed by the sites)
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/do-colorblind-people-dream-in-color--0979/
http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/kerr_2004.html
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/colorblindnesstest.html
Mr. I was a color/music synesthetic. Synesthesia means that when you evoke one sense, you involuntarily evoke another. So with Mr. I, whenever he heard music, he would see colors and after he lost his color vision, it was difficult for him to listen to music.
I looked up information on this. I was particularly interested in colorblind artists. I found a number of them all summarized in one of the links below. This was all very interesting for me but I was especially more interested in synesthetic musicians and apparently it is about as common as synesthetic artists.
It occurred to me that Mr. I only tried to listen to music in the beginning. So I have to wonder if, as he got used to his condition, his hearing or enjoyment of music did not also change. This was why I particularly wanted to look things up like this. Unfortunately, there are no reports of cases like Mr. I, at least none that I could get my hands on.
With Mr. I, before his accident, music and color were clearly connected (as it was also with composers like Alexander Scriabin). Once he lost his color, it was a shock to him and his enjoyment of music was affected. However, he got more used to the nature of his sight. The thing is, there are colorblind color synesthetics, for example those who see "Martian colors" and these are colorblind synesthetics that see that certain color only when they see a certain number or whatever sensation it happens to be paired with. So it might just be possible that there was a second chance for Mr. I.
I suppose, after all of my venturings, I am left with many questions.
http://www.juilliard.edu/journal/2008-2009/0809/articles/0809_Art.html
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/11/05/martian-colors/
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/performancetoday/fredlines/archive/2009/02/seeing_music_--_synesthesia.shtml
After reading The Case of the Colorblind Painter I was really interested in his personal accounts of how he viewed the world around him after the accident. Immediately following the tragic event, he has a newfound disgust for the world he lives in. He makes this obvious in his descriptions, saying “…not just that colors were missing, but that what he did see had a distasteful, “dirty” look, the whites glaring, yet discolored and off-white, the blacks cavernous—everything wrong, unnatural, stained, and impure.” I think these personal descriptions took the chapter to a whole new personal level that made Mr. I. even easier to connect with and I could not help but feel more sympathy for him. This led me to want to research more personal accounts of living with colorblindness from birth or cerebral achromatospia to get a feel for what life is like for them.
The majority of the posts I found were from individuals who have been colorblind their whole lives which is not surprising given that the chapter talked about the rarity of total colorblindness due to brain damage later in life. Individuals born with colorblindness talk about the challenges they need to overcome on a daily basis. For example, one particular person shared their experience of avoiding places with bright lights and wearing broad brimmed hats and dark glasses. He attempted to explain how bright light affected him by saying, “the full midday sun is like having a camera flash go on and stay on in my face.” The same individual also shared a story from his youth about the misunderstanding of those around him. Because of the intense light on sunny days, he would walk with his head facing downward and squinting his eyes. Most of his teachers mistook this for low self-esteem problems, which was quite frustrating to him as a child.
Another frustration that many of these individuals confessed was the lack of credit they received from others they know. Several spoke of how their judgments were doubted by others because it is hard for those who are not colorblind to understand what they see.
One particular individual shared that trust is a huge factor in his day-to-day life. Being colorblind means depending on others for help in certain situations, for example, picking out clothes to wear.
It was a little more challenging to find personal stories of individuals who suffer from achromatospia. Achormatospia is caused by a severe trauma or illness that disrupted the pathways between the eye and the part of the brain that processes color. A unique characteristic of these certain individuals is that they see objects in shades of gray because they once knew what color was. Much like Mr. I., they can also distinguish between different values on the gray scale. One man with achromatospia created a youtube video describing the challenges of protecting his eyes from bright light and his troubles in school as a child. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbwKCNlUEA&feature=related)
I would like to conclude with a blogger who sums up the possible reactions to colorblindness that the individual might have. He states that there are those he calls the “non-believers” in which they second-guess nearly every decision they make because of their inadequate judgment of color. The other group of colorblind individuals he calls the “believers”, who simply accept their situation for what it is. After reading this chapter and other personal accounts of those who suffer from colorblindness I am glad that, for his own sake, Mr. I. finally came to terms with his situation and embraced his “world of achromatopia.”
http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Have-Color-Blindness/461197
http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/ubnrp/visionwebsite04/achromatopsia.html
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/2038
http://www.start.ca/users/joneil/colour2.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mkZpdv4cwk
For further research I looked in the brain’s adaptability dealing with the blind. I will talk about three people in particular and include some general information. I will mention two blind artists and a blind athlete.
Eckert, an artist, lost his sight as a young man. He was a carpenter and newly engaged when he was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). There is no cure for this disease and it eventually causes total blindness.
Armagan, an artist, has a genetic disorder that caused him to be born without eyes. He uses his hands to work and has perspective and scale in his art.
May, an athlete, lost his sight when he was 3-years-old. He got limbic stem cell and cornea replacement when he was 46-years-old. He now has somewhat ‘poor’ but useful vision.
There are many similarities between all of these cases, as well as significant differences that shine light on new areas for me. Eckert and Armagan both say that they can ‘see’ the work that they are producing. Eckert, once having sight says that he uses the ‘mind’s eye’. He says sound, touch and memory all contribute to the photos that he takes and develops. Armagan says that he can see more with his hands than most people see with their eyes. He paints by first thinking of familiar objects and arranging them in his head before he starts working. Armagan had an MRI scan while he was drawing. The MRI showed that the same areas people with sight use when seeing are active when Aramagan is drawing a picture or referring to a picture in mind. I think this is crazy! His brain has adapted the same areas used for sight in order for him to see in his very own/unique way.
Like Mr. I. both Eckert and May had to develop a new sense of self after their vision had been altered. Eckert (and his wife-to-be) had to adapt their lives to compensate for a lack of sight. May had to readjust his life in order to include his sight. Brain scans were taken of May when a simple moving image was shown to him. His brain did not respond in the same way when dealing with focal areas (e.g. the center of a moving target). He had to learn how to see. It was very interesting hearing May talk about his new lifestyle. He was more secure with his walking stick than he was using this new sense that we trust so much. The opposite was true so Eckert and Mr. I. they both had to adapt their other senses to compensate for altered vision. I think it would be interesting to come back to May later and see if his other senses have digressed due to his vision being restored.
There was one interesting difference between Eckert and May. Eckert mentioned the stigma of being a blind/handicapped person. Whereas, May said, “…when I go around as a blind person, with my stick, I am sure of myself…. an object of respect and admiration.”
There are many ways ‘disabilities’ can adjust someone’s brain. Its ability to adapt itself so perfectly for someone amazes me. The possibilities seem endless when someone is willing to put forth the effort to teach themselves. These cases include very admirable people who are doing extraordinary things in the field of science - just by living their lives.
http://www.peteeckert.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3AgO6H0H98
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVgfC_FV2hI
I choose the topic of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS. This topic is related to the chapter as it was brought up as a possible treatment for conditions such as being color-blind. I am interested in this topic because I found any way of “treating” the brain fascinating. I really just wanted to learn more about it. TMS is kind of like magnetic waves which send an electric pulse to the brain. It is a noninvasive procedure that does not require anesthesia, surgery, or anything. It’s about a 40 minute procedure that the patient/client/person is wide awake and alert for. After treatment they can leave and go on with their day as if it never happened. It is not painful; you merely feel a tapping on your head. This electric pulse is a very localized to the specific brain region that they wish to target. As probably most of us know different reason of the brain are responsive to different parts of the body, as such this pulses can be targeted not only to different regions of the body but also to different other functions (i.e. mood). Vision, speech, and memory are all other examples of the way TMS can affect the mind.
There are two types of TMS, the one already explained and the other is rTMS which is just repetitive TMS or sometimes called rapid-rate TMS. rTMS just emits faster pulses and it appears that the client goes through multiple sessions of rTMS for 4-6 weeks. It also appears that the benefits are longer lasting the more sessions that there are. There is minimal side or adverse effects or TMS or rTMS. This is a very slight risk of producing seizures, even if the person is completely healthy but it appears rare and pretty avoidable. There is some other small effects such as headache but not common and 5% or less stop treatment due to the side effects.
TMS and rTMS may show some promise for the future. Currently the most common use for (r)TMS is depression. But (r)TMS may also be used for obsessive-compulsive disorder, other psychological disorders, migraines, Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and other neurological issues. TMS can also be used for rehabilitation/physical therapy. TMS can and has helped with mapping the brain. Placing the TMS on different areas of the head and therefore brain can make a thumb, foot, or eye move, therefore helping to identify what region of brain is responsible for what movements (and perhaps emotions and senses) of the body. More research needs to be done to discover all the benefits of TMS or rTMS and any implications that may arise.
http://www.musc.edu/tmsmirror/intro/layintro.html
http://tmslab.org/home/about-tms/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJtNPqCj-iA
Topic: Colorblind Tests and Examples
After reading about several different tests used to prove if someone is colorblind or not, it got me to thinking about other tests that are used for this reason. A person can be fully colorblind and only see the colors, grey, black, and white as in the reading about Mr. I or they can be colorblind in the sense they have trouble distinguishing between specific colors. In Mr. I's case he had achromatopsia which is a form of monochromacy meaning the person cannot acknowledge any color at all. A person could also be what is called red-green colorblind meaning they have trouble distinguishing a specific color from another. I would now like to find some websites that explain and show the different types of colorblind tests that are useful.
After visiting the following site:
http://colorvisiontesting.com/
I was personally able to take one of the colorblindness tests. Fortunately I passed with ease, but I was not surprised because I have taken a few tests before and have never had trouble seeing colors in my past.
Another website I visited was a video that showed another colorblind test.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWyrp3hu4KE
The video was said to be posted by a person who is colorblind. This specific colorblind test would relate best to a person who can see colors but has trouble distinguishing between certain colors. It would not be as beneficial for a person like Mr. I who suffers from achromatopsia.
One such example that came to mind after reading about the colorblind painter was related to how the brain adapts. Those of us who are not colorblind even have trouble with this simple test. I feel it relates to this reading because it shows how learned words and visual sensation can complicate spoken language. Most students may have already done this test in elementary, but as simple as it is, it still is a great example of color perception. After visiting the following website:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9IKPMCL7o4&feature=related
… follow the directions and see how difficult it is for you to complete the test correctly. The video goes pretty fast so try to pause the video and attempt it that way. It may become clear after attempting this test on how to understand that our brain tries to perceive the words first and color second. From these websites and from the reading I think it is fair to say that colorblindness can change the entire outlook of a person’s world and depending on what type it is; it is still a process that the brain and eyes are in charge of.
Topic: Brain plasticity and adaptation following loss.
The plasticity of the brain and its ability to adjust and compensate for loss is nothing short of remarkable. I have long been a novice enthusiast for neurology and brain studies in general which is why I found this story so fascinating. Mr. I struggled for an extended period of time with his loss of color perception, but ultimately found his life more fulfilling without it and even had more heightened senses. The brains ability to seemingly take the abilities that were lost and re-distribute their uses elsewhere is another amazing aspect. Numerous studies have been done in the past and have yieled some positive results in favor of the claim that the brain will seemingly develop new neural pathways and stronger neural pathways in other sensory areas when one sense is lost or severely diminished. The idea that the brain is plastic is no doubt a fact. Not merely from an adaptation standpoint to sensory loss, but to a rapidly shifting world and, in specific, our culture. If our brain was unable to shift and change and mold into different forms, we would not survive for long and nothing would be able to change to any significant degree. Mr. I. has a slighter and longer experience with this than someone who suddenly loses their sight or hearing. This idea has been prominently known as "one sense is heightened when another is lost". What most people do not realize is how the brain actually changes. Some studies have determined that functions and areas of the brain that had previously been unused (or seldom used) come forward in a sense, to help in the adaptation process. I look forward to researching more about this topic and potentially performing a stuudy someday myself.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080827002719.htm
http://mprcenter.org/blog/2009/04/06/brain-plasticity-and-adapting-to-change/
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695226681/Brain-injuries-require-adaptations-patience.html
Achromatopsia is something that I am not familiar with and do not know a lot about. When I was reading the footer on page 31 of our book about "Greying-out" I became very interested. Apparently many people can experience this little glimpse of achromatopsia, which is due to a reduction of blood supply. This often occurs when a person is fainting or in shock. I decided that I would just like to learn more about achromatopsia in general. This obviously relates to the book because this is what Mr. I’s condition is (although his is more rare because it is brought on by damage to the brain and not by inheritance).
While researching about achromatopsia, I found out that achromatopsia is typically prevalent at birth. Achromatopsia affects approximately one out of 40,000 births (which is more than I thought it would be). Achromatopsia is more common to occur in births that were from two parents that were relatives. Achromatopsia is inherited because there is a lack of cone vision, therefore people have to rely on their rods. People with achromatopsia are often sensitive to light and may have “wobbly” eyes as well. As Mr. I used in the book, dark tinted glasses or red glasses can help reduce sensitivity to light and can help with vision in general. Due to the sensitivity of light people with achromatopsia frequently are squinting or blinking, which may be a reason why many of them prefer to not go out in public during daylight (due to the fact that is seems socially awkward for a person to constantly be squinting).
After researching further I found a website that touched on achromatopsia that occurred as a result of brain damaged, and this is called cerebral achromatopsia. Cerebral achromatopsia can vary quite a bit from case to case on how the damage occurred and if they can see some color or no color at all. However, this is all they really talked about as they moved on to discuss inherited achromatopsia.
Even though Mr. I said at the end of the chapter that he no longer wished to be “cured” of his color blindness and he adapted to his life, I decided to look into what could possibly come of a person with achromatopsia. Just like the dark sunglasses, a person can actually get red contact lenses that are placed in front of the pupil, which helps to block some of the light that is entering the eye. Other solutions for people with achromatopsia are to have special blinds or glasses for their house, which also let less light in. There is no medical or surgical procedure right now to help people with this rare disease. Right now researchers are focusing genetics and switching the defective photoreceptor gene with a full one.
Curiously enough, everytime I went to research Achromatopsia, “The Island of the Colorblind” by Oliver Sacks was mentioned. This is a book about Pingelapese people of the Eastern Caroline Islands in the Pacific who have achromatopsia... Which lead me to look at these two websites : http://www.oliversacks.com/books/island-of-the-colorblind/ & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM06G26X-rQ. So, if people are further interested I would recommend the youtube videos of the "Island of the Colorblind."
Websites used:
http://www.aapos.org/faq_list/achromatopsia
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11286
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/2038
http://www.youreyeguide.co.uk/achromatopia/achromatopsia-treatment.html
After reading The Case of the Colorblind Painter, I started to wonder about more recent cases of cerebral achromatopsia and how people affected by the condition fit into the social world. In order to find the answers I was looking for, I first had to look in an unconventional place—Facebook. I also had to broaden out from just cerebral achromatopsia and include other forms of the condition as well. After looking extensively for any information pertaining to the lifestyle of those with achromatopsia, I began to notice it was almost as rare as the condition itself. Eventually my research on the subject was, not surprisingly, interrupted by the desire to get on Facebook; however, it occurred to me once I signed in that there might be a group or page containing information about color blindness. Much to my surprise, I located an achromatopsia support network fan page. Located on the page is a discussion board that has a number of topics that deal directly with living every day life with color blindness. It also serves as a common place where those with the condition or their family and friends can come together and share experiences and provide valuable information regarding basic knowledge of the condition, research updates, and tools to make day-to-day life easier. A few other websites I found had similar structure and had generated the same goals: create a sense of community among those with achromatopsia and educate readers on many subjects pertaining to the condition.
Achromatopsia is extremely rare in the world, especially cerebral achromatopsia. In 1986 when Mr. I was experiencing color blindness, contact was virtually non-existent from two people similarly affected. It was actually Frances Futterman, a woman mentioned in the reading, who founded the Achromatopsia Network. The network's goal is to provide information on how to cope with the disorder. Those with achromatopsia are highly sensitive to light waves and, as stated in the reading, often wear colored glasses or sunglasses in order to control their visual fields. Obviously sunglasses of all varieties are easy to come by; however, not all shaded glasses are advantageous to those with achromatopsia. Special glasses or filtered contact lenses are required and not every optometrist carries them. The ability for people to get online and interact with others who have shared the same difficulties is a huge step in tackling the immediate obstacles that might otherwise have gone on unresolved. Support groups also provide information about medical treatment facilities nationwide that can cater to the needs of those with achromatopsia. This kind of social support can also help elude negative situations like described in the book. Instead of depression following color blindness, people can gain support from others and know they're not alone. I found it especially encouraging to see families swapping stories about their children and even planning on meeting up with one another. The most interesting post I found discussed how people with achromatopsia watched TV. Mr. I talked about how at first he couldn't stand watching color television but later adapted and was able to bare it. I wish they had described the process a little more but from what I read in a discussion thread, most of those with color blindness have to sit right under the television screen to see properly.
I was really interested in the social support for those that are color blind because I know beside from the obvious physical difficulties, people also have to deal with emotions and every day life struggles the come with it. I've always been interested in how others respond to adversity and seeing everyone, including Mr. I, find the good in their condition is a great feeling.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41648172586
http://www.achromatopsia.info/emotional-impact/
http://www.achromatopsiaconvention.org/
One idea that really struck out to me was brain plasticity. What I found interesting is how the brains plasticity and our own idea and regards to cognition and reality interact. We can figure out what I mean by looking at the simple actions that occur when the brain attempts to reorganize. The brain reorganizes by creating and reconnecting nerve endings this process is called axonal sprouting. Axonal sprouting allows the brain to create and reconnect to undamaged nerve endings allowing for the damaged functions to continue or occur on a lower level. What I found most interesting was our lack of awareness in regards to this function. Jonathan didn’t realize that his brain was adapting. That what had occurred was a failure in his ability to perceive colors and it wasn’t in till later that he appreciated what his brain had done. It had reorganized to see wave lengths rather than complete failure he was able to see the world in a different color (pun intended). Bringing me to my point and I guess a question I have that I don’t feel can really be answered by a simple review of a couple of websites. Why can we not cognitively and emotionally keep up with the activities of our brain? The brain works in such an objective manner concentrating on survival yet we are not capable of adapting as quickly cognitively as our brain. Some would argue to say that the mere reorganization is a cognitive function. However, I will venture to say that it is missing the vital part to be a fully cognitive behavior. What I mean by this is in order for the brain to fully function we must be okay with the change that just occurred. Jonathan was unhappy with his new perception and was leading himself to dreary melancholy life. In till Jonathan allowed himself to appreciate and come to an understanding of this new hardware we could not say that he was fully functioning. What needed to occur was not only mechanical reorganization but a reorganization of the self. We can look at Maslow hierarchy of needs and realize that esteem and a need to be moving towards self-actualization are necessary to be psychologically healthy. If we can’t perceive the changes that occur in our brain as a good thing; in my opinion we have not successfully adapted. Looking at Jonathan he didn’t seem to be fully recovered in till he raised his own sense of self-esteem, and began to see himself as an artist thus giving him a sense of self-actualization. Overall, through my research I found how the mechanics and emotions play a role in brain plasticity. That we must perceive this change as a good thing otherwise it cannot and will not be a success.
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/regsys/maslow.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=40362
Web Divergence Activity- Week #1
I found the whole idea of people who are born colorblind fascination. These people must struggle a lot with their disability. I wanted to look at some different things that these people struggle with on a day to day schedule and look at what can be done, or what is being done to help these people out. Here is what I found.
http://www.colormatters.com/kaufman.html
A college professor gave her class an assignment related to perception. She wanted them to find out what draws customers to certain products and why. She soon found out that there was a particular student in her class that was unable to complete the assignment because he was colorblind. He could not see the brightly colored products or understand what drew the people into certain products just by the mere looking at them. She later came up with the brilliant idea to keep the assignment the same, but only looking through the eyes of color blind shoppers. She wanted to know what colorblind customers see when they shop and what they find appealing to the eye. She found customers do not always see colors in ways that people may originally think they do. Red and green products seem to pose the most problems for the color blind consumers and find it frustrating to shop at times. Some companies who understand of their colorblind clientele think that increasing the verbal words on their product would help as well as increase the contrast to certain words on their product so they have an easier time focusing on the verbal words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2ZZB0vvlwQ
Some people don’t realize it, but colorblind people struggle with lots of daily tasks dealing with color. Breaking down the simple tasks of day-to-day life, you can find numerous tasks that these people may struggle with. To make it easier for these people there are options out there. The iPhone has created an application for the colorblind population that helps them with sorting out little things like buying clothes and being able to match that with the clothes that they already have. For example a colorblind person can go shopping with their iPhone. While shopping, if they find something that they like they can take a picture of that article of clothing and then add that picture to their “HueVue” application on their iPhone. From there they can type in the colors that they see. The application then tells you what that article of clothing would look good with certain contrasting colors. Once they know this they can see whether they have pants that would match that particular shirt or tie or whatever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfvdScxF_D0&feature=related
Colorblindness also can cause problems with daily reading. Walking down the street what do you see? How do you know what certain signs say if they are written in a particular ink color that you can’t see. There have been glasses made for the colorblind community that allow these people to see normally through the looking glass. These glasses allow people with all types of colorblindness to see the world around them.
Without a book I decided to look into an aspect of cognitive psych that I am particularly interested in; the biological aspect. Cognitive Neuroscience attempts to link the models of mental processes that psychologists theorize to concrete biological effects in the brain. A famous study done by Hubel and Wiesel on the brains of cats revealed that the brain orients the information it receives from the eyes by focusing on a very specific detail in the environment. Hubel and Wiesel found that neurons in the occipital lobes of the cats would only fire when exposed to straight lines. A big black dot produced no effect but when the straight edge of the slide crossed the cats field of vision the neuron would fire. They found that different neurons would fire for lines positioned at different angles. This lead to the theory that the brain picks out straight lines from what we see and constructs our perception of our visual field from the basis of the perception of these lines. The lines emphasize contrast and provide the framework for what we see. Color, texture and other detail is all theorized to be further down the hierarchy and occur later in the process.
What does this imply to someone studying cognitive psychology? If we know that the brain organizes visual information by straight lines than a possible question is "what can we do to maximize human perception?" This also gives rise to the question if the brain orients its visual perception by a very specific detail what if other senses are equally sensitive to some specific stimuli. Language for example is a phenomena that taps into many areas of cognition and the brain itself. If we hear someone talking to us our brain automatically seperates the sounds from other environmental sounds. We instantly know we are being talked to we don't wonder if we are hearing the wind or a chainsaw. Wernicke's area is a region in the temporal lobe of the brain and is responsible for our comprehension of language. When we hear words our brain routes the information to wernicke's area after it is processed by the primary auditory cortex. Cognitive psychology might ask what cues does our brain take note of in spoken language that allows it to identify the sound as speech. If a person is exposed to speech of a different language does the brain process it and send it to wernicke's area even if they don't understand any of it. When a person tunes out someone else are they consciously changing how their brain routes the information it is receiving. I found a video online of someone suffering from Wernicke's Aphasia. Basically this is when damage to Wernicke's area causes an inability to comprehend language. It is interesting because the man seems to not even acknowledge the words the woman is speaking, reacting only to her body language and even has very obvious problems forming language. Broca's area is accepted to be the area of the brain that begets speech and creating language. This to me imply's that we don't understand the biological aspect of the brain enough to be able to get much further beyond generalizations. It seems that there is a much more complicated relationship between Broca's area, Wernicke's area and language than simply a creates language and b interprets it. In my opinion that is where congnitive psychology comes in. We create models to help us understand how our brain processes information. These models may not be 100% accurate but they help us understand how the brain's mechanisms are expressed in our everyday reality.
Facial recognition is a topic that has a broad body of research. Race seems to play a role on recognition that is known as the "cross-race effect". Basically this principle says that when observing faces a person will be better able to recognize faces of the same race as the observer. What cues does our brain look for in faces that triggers it to store a face in memory rather than dismissing it as irrelevant. Is it just color, or definition? I found a study (or abstract really, you have to pay for the whole thing) that researched whether precious contact with another race would decrease the cross-race effect. They distributed questionnaires to determine the level of exposure to a particular race and then administered a test; they observed faces and then observed more faces some of which were in the previous group and then were evaluated on which they recognized. The study found that there were no differences apparent between those who had contact with the other race and those who did not. The study admits it found no results but it still provided some insight into how our brains organized information, or how it doesn't.
I have always had a strong bias in psychology, preferring biological and sometimes behavioral methods. I always tried to stay toward the more concrete part of the science, but cognitive psychology fills in where we cannot find definitive evidence or when we are dealing with abstract, unmeasurable themes. In liu of the book I tried to evaluate the cognitive method of psychology and contrast it to my personal biases.
Web Resources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVhYN7NTIKU
http://sharp.bu.edu/~slehar/webstuff/pcave/hubel.html
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://eyewitness.utep.edu/documents/herrera%2520WPA%25202000.pdf
http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/25/2/217.abstract
What touched me most in the first chapter was the emotional life and personal changes of Mr I. Therefore, searching online I tried to focus on the problem of correlations between different kinds of injuries and their emotional effects on the patients. I read an article that describes what suffering posttraumatic stress can be for a person. How it changes not only his or her life, but the life of all family. In one example a 35 years old woman sustained a mild head injury but this caused serious consequences in her life. I quote: “Prior to the accident she had been a well-adjusted person, outgoing, and happily employed”. After it she became depressed, pretty much anti-social; she could not read and evaluate other people’s emotions, which finally lead to severe comprehension and communicational problems. For a long time after the accident her life was full of frustrating and anger.
If you would only think about the amount of people experiencing these difficulties (“hundreds of millions, 1 in 12 men, 1 in 200 women” – according to my third weblink).Sympathy is obvious in such cases, but it is difficult to understand, how Mr.I actually felt being captured in his “brand new brain”. On one of the websites you might have such an opportunity. The resource let you “try on” different colorblind effects, as well as explains their nature. Special part of the website is devoted to genetic and other causes of colorblindness. What was really interesting for me – animal vision systems, presented on the resource. It actually reminded me about apes and their paintings.
I have read some material about that stuff, and it is pretty obvious that gorillas, chimpanzee and orangutans have certain art feeling. They paint and draw with great pleasure, and do not wish to continue their work if they think they have finished the masterpiece. Is not that amazing how art is presented in our “mammal brother’s” souls and enriches their life? If it has such a strong connection with our feelings and other cognitive domains, it is quite understandable why people suffer that much after sudden loss of that capacity and what Mr. I had to come through.
http://www.koko.org/world/art.html
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002168401
http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/2.html
Biologically speaking, we have three color receptors: red, green, and blue. This “colors” are not empirical, they should call them long, medium, and short wave receptors. Though a certain cone cell may be activated more than another in a response to color, the brain does not necessarily “see” it that way. If color was purely based biologically, than all cultures would “see” color the same way. However we do not.
The Sapir-Worth hypothesis is many times cited when thinking of cultural color perception. The use of language to categorize color and make it a reality is thought of in color perception (1). The separation between red and orange, blue and green, and violet and red, is hard even if given a name and a category. For example the English word cyan. Cyan is one of the many ambiguous colors in our language. To get rid of this confusion, we lump the color into the category of blue-green. Is it green, or is it blue? If asked to give it the distinction of blue or green alone, people will answer differently even within the same culture. If compared to a “purer” green or blue, people many times will give the opposite color (cyan compared with green is blue). Culturally too, people have other perceptions. A study was done with native English and Greek speakers. Those who spoke Greek saw more green than blue in ambiguous blue-green colors than English speakers. These ambiguous colors fall into what is termed “the confusion line.” Depending on personal experience and culture, people group colors differently. For example, a person or culture that dwells in a desert region would be more attuned to the “green” in cyan, and more likely to call it a green color.
It isn't only language that affects our perception of color, but our practices in our culture. For example, perhaps the Greek speaking people in the experiment saw more green than blue because of its higher relative importance. Greece is a drier country than most English speaking ones. The green may be more significant than the wetter countries of our own culture. The perception of color is not only for category use, but for its meaning as well. Color use and its aesthetic sense varies greatly as well. In many parts of Asia, white does not mean “pure” or “wholesome” as it does in our own. It is the color of mourning and death, and for us black means the same thing. White is a bright and relatively neutral color in our culture, but in Asia it is an empty color. In spite of the easy classification and reception in the eye, it is perceived with different emotions, thoughts, and uses. Buddhist monks wear orange robes, as compared to the usual black our own holy men wear. We would find it garish if our holy men showed up wearing orange, but for those who practice Buddhism it's a calming and spiritual color.
In these cases, the actual classification of color or the biological processes of color reception do not matter. It is the perception of what a color really means and is. Some colors in cultures have more words for different hues of color than another, showing more emphasis of the importance of a color. Color is a big part of our sight that gets over looked more often than other elements of “seeing.” However, it is our culture and personal experience that truly helps us “see” how we perceive and think about the world around us. Drunk tanks, the color of opposing teams locker rooms, hospitals, and many other environments use peoples' perception of color to influence mood and behavior.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1172
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/KallColor.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/magazine/30CRASH.html?scp=1&sq=color%20cognition&st=cse&pagewanted=2