For this web divergence I would like you to find some web material that relates to what we have been reading about in our reader. I would like you to integrate what our reader and text discuss in relation to the site. When you write about the site, 1) Discuss in general what the site is about, 2) discuss why you chose this particular aspect of what we have been covering, 3) discuss how the web site uses the material - how it supports or extends what we have learned, 4) how does the reader present the material (what does it say about the material), 5) How does your text handle the material (what does it say), and 6) After reading the three sources of information, what do you now have to say about the particular topic you chose.
When you develop your comment for your homework please use the numbering system above for organization sake.
Take care,
--Dr. M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwQpaHQ0hYw
1) This website is a YouTube video of a man with visual agnosia. He’s looking at images and asked to determine if the picture is of a clock, lock, or a telephone. He goes through the choices over and over, and cannot come to a decision. He finally just guesses, and when the researcher asks if he is certain he says he has no idea. He knows exactly what to do with the object which is a lock, but can’t determine its name.
2) I chose to learn more about this because I found the story of Mr. S. very interesting. It was hard for me to visualize being able to describe an object, but not being able to name it. I was wondering what the thinking process of the brain is like if someone is diagnosed with this. I imagined it being very frustrating to be able to describe the object perfectly, without being able to say it. I imagined it was much like the feeling of having a word on the tip of your tongue, but not being able to articulate it.
3) This video supports the story of Mr. S. presented in the beginning of Chapter 3 in the reader. The man can physically see the objects, and he has no trouble describing them. In fact he even says his hands know exactly what to do with it. It highlights how the brain constructs the objects, or puts all the pieces of information together to know what an object is. I liked having a visual representation of what Mr. S. goes though every day.
4) The reader describes Mr. S.’s story, and how he suffered brain damage due to carbon monoxide poisoning. It describes visual agnosia as the inability to construct an experience of objects out of the colors, lines, and motions that we perceive. The book especially emphasizes that we construct what we are experiencing, and Mr. S. highlights that point. He cannot construct the objects, but has no trouble taking in the visual information.
5) The text describes how the visual information is taken in through our eyes and retina. Electrical impulses are then generated in the receptors, and then sent along nerve fibers to the brain. They are then processed, and the brain sends signals to tell the person what they are seeing. If a person suffers brain damage, this process doesn’t functional normally. The signal is still sent, but the person cannot identify the object. They can only perceive the visual parts of the object, without giving it a label.
6) After reading the textbook, the reader, and seeing the YouTube video I have a better understanding of visual agnosia. I understand that seeing is a physical process, with many steps involved. The system takes more than just the eyeballs to take in our surroundings. Our eyes and brain work together to see and then make sense of the objects we are seeing with our brain.
BrainPort Vision Device
1) The BrainPort vision device is an non-surgical assistive visual prosthetic device that translates information from a digital video camera to your tongue, through gentle electrical stimulation.
The BrainPort vision system consists of a postage-stamp-size electrode array for the top surface of the tongue, a base unit, a digital video camera, and a hand-held controller for zoom and contrast inversion.
2) I found it interesting in our reader how our eyes really do not see, it is the visual processing of our brain that creates these images in our mind.
3) Visual information is collected from the user-adjustable head-mounted camera and sent to the BrainPort base unit. The base unit translates the visual information into a stimulation pattern that is displayed on the tongue. The image is created by presenting white pixels from the camera as strong stimulation, black pixels as no stimulation, and gray levels as medium levels of stimulation, with the ability to invert contrast when appropriate. Individuals who use this device often report the sensation as pictures that are painted on the tongue with Champagne bubbles.
4) The reader discusses the fundamental problem of vision (remember clear back in chapter 1?). You do not construct a visual scene in one step, but in a multiplicity of stages.
5) It discusses retinitis pigmentosa. It is a degeneration of the retina that is pass from one generation to the next, not always effecting everyone in a family. This condition first attacks the peripheral rod receptors and results in poor vision in the peripheral visual field. In severe cases, the foveal cone receptors are also attacked, resulting in compete blindness.
6) I was glad I came across this device. It is cool how it works and that you can see what they see.
It is a lot of information to take in on how this device works. Go to the first link for more information and an example of what you would see. The second link is about Erik Weihenmayer, who is fairly new with the Brainport Vision Device.
http://vision.wicab.com/technology/#%20What%20is%20the%20BrainPort%20vision%20device?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNkw28fz9u0
http://internationaleyetrust.org/
1.) This is the International Eye Trusts' website. Their goal is to assist the blind and help to improve their quality of life while maintaining the individual's dignity and independence and also to work on advancing technology so that someday, the blind may see. This site had several links that discussed how the eye works, about themselves and their research, and other information pertaining to the eye. One part of this website that I thought was really interesting was the Artificial Epiretinal Prosthesis that Dr. John Doorish is working on for 9 years. A brief explanation is given in this youtube clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhoCzeFsKns&feature=related
I thought this was particualarly interesting because how he describes it, it is a very small computer that is attached to the retina that can be stimulated and send information to the brain's visual system.
2.) I chose this site because this week in the reader we discussed the visual system and the different parts of the eye. Doorish has created an instrument that can be attached to the retina of a blind individual's sight and the instrument does some of the work that the person's own eye is incapable of doing to try and restore their sight. Another thing that I found to be interesting is that Dr. Doorish seems to be very passionate about animals and hopes that this device will also be able to be implanted into blind animals to restore their sight as well, but I could not find any information on the website or elsewhere on whether or not Dr. Doorish tested on animals.
3.)The website describes the function of the retina, which the device is attached to. This area makes up about 72% of the eye and is at the back of the eye. The retina acts like the film of the camera and when light strikes it nerve impulses are triggered, which send information to the brain. I would guess that for many blind people they have problems with their retina, so they are unable to send the information to the brain and so the device the Doorish invented is attached to the retina so that it can send the information to the brain for it.
4 and 5.) The reader and my text both emphasized what the website said about the retina, except in both it told how that from the retina, the information being sent to your brain goes a couple other places. First it goes to the LGN to be processed and then to the primary visual cortex where lines are constructed.
6.) After reviewing these three sources I feel that I know more about the function of the retina and think that there is a lot of hopefully technology out there for visually impaired people and animals.
http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/light2e.html
1.This site has more examples of the simultaneous brightness contrast from our book. It has the example that the book has with the gray disk that look different with different colors surrounding it. It also includes images that look like they’re moving because of the colors surrounding certain parts. The site has a picture of a “ring of simultaneous brightness contrast” with multiple gray disks in a circle.
2.I choose to talk about this because the simultaneous brightness contrast is interesting. Depending on the color surrounding the image, a color can look darker or lighter. It’s all about how our perception of the color is changing because of a second variable.
3.The website doesn’t discuss what we’ve learned in the reader, it just further shows that this concept is the way it is and it can be applied to more than one image.
4.The reader says that we see all levels of gray, and this is done by comparing different regions of the image. For example, you compare the disk to its surrounding white region, and the other disk to its surrounding black region. The different grays that we see are a result of these different comparisons; and this effect is called simultaneous brightness contrast. The reader then presents the idea that simultaneous brightness contrast makes subjective figures. The black inducers surround white regions make them look brighter by contrast. Then this would mean that black should lead to brighter whites.
5.The textbook says that the difference in the gray color is because of the background. The text explains simultaneous brightness contrast with lateral inhibition. According to the lateral inhibition explanation, the light background darkens our perception of its square because the receptors stimulated by this background send inhibition to the receptors stimulated by the square. So the dark background does not have a darkening effect because the receptors stimulated by this background send little inhibition to the receptors stimulated by the square.
6.After looking at my three sources, I understand why the gray color looks different with different colored backgrounds. I also know what simultaneous bright contrast is too.
Web Divergence Site:
http://vectors.usc.edu/issues/4/malperception/simultanagnosia.html
1) This is a page from a site dealing with the visual disorder highlighted at the beginning of chapter 4 of our reader, dorsal simultanagnosia. With this unfortunate syndrome, sufferers are, for all practical purposes blind. The interesting aspect of this site is that is you scroll down a bit to the bottom, you can click on the brief video simulation that allows you to experience the syndrome for yourself.
2) I chose this aspect of what we have been covering, again, because I love the story example in our reader. They always inspire me to learn more about these unique disorders that highlight what our visual intelligence is doing for us by showing what happens when something goes awry in our visual processing.
3) This web site supports the material from the book with a brief description of dorsal simultanagnosia, and then allows you to experience a really cool simulation - short and to the point, but you really comprehend what this particular disorder does to sufferers.
4) The reader says that those who suffer form dorsal simultanagnosia don't suffer from a restriction of view, but a restriction of attention. The disorder usually occurs after a stroke or brain injury which damages the parietal and occipital lobes of both hemispheres of the brain.
5) The Goldstein textbook (2007) discusses the influence and necessity of attention as a primary mechanism that enables us to focus on our perceptions. The book does not discuss dorsal simultanagnosia, but it does cover the importance of attention in how it effects our information processing. The text discusses inattentional blindness in the context of the classic experiment wherein observers don't notice an actor in a gorilla suit on a film.
The text also shows and describes the dorsal area of the brain, which covers the aforementioned structures in the back of the brain where the critical parietal and occipital lobes are located in this syndrome.
6) From these three sources, I am able to better comprehend the anatomy, functioning, and dis-functioning of the critical brain structures for attention as it relates to perception. I am also better able to comprehend the experience of this syndrome. This understanding illuminates my knowledge of this specialized from of processing as it relates to perception.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMimG5T3jxI
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/eyetr.html
1)The first website is just a video description of the parts of the eye and it is fin because it is in 3D images which is a fun way to percieve things! The second website also talks about the structure of the eye in a more in depth way.
2)I picked this topic because the structure of the eye is something that I learned about in middle school but have not really covered since and it is one of the most unique parts of the human body.
3) The website gives a more indpeth description of the eye than the reader does it gives 16 parts of the eye and describes them in a way that is easy to understand. It also talks about myopia(near sightedness) and hypermyopia(far sightedness). These things are cause by misshapen corneas which can cause the image to fall infront of or behind the retina.
4)The reader only gives 7 parts of the eye. It does not talk about myopia or hypermyopia. The reader focuses on the how we use our retina to reflect light and make images similar to a camera.
5) The text gives many different parts of thhe eye and focuses a big part on the retina as well and how it reflects light. The text states that we can percieve things differently according to how much light is in the place of the object we are percieving. The text also demostrates how an image can enter the eye from farther away and closer. They no longer enter at a paralell when they become to close or too far.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/files/2007/06/lightfx_orange_silhouette.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/06/not_seeing_the_wood_.html&usg=__8fg5q1GKdW1NN21X6_SqaoU42KU=&h=94&w=132&sz=6&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=BwP-OzgXA9LD_M:&tbnh=66&tbnw=92&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddorsal%2Bsimultanagnosia%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
1) After reading chapter 4 in the reader and the text they focus mainly on our sight, and seeing things in parts. The beginning of chapter four in the reader describes a visual injury called Dorsal Simultanagnosia. Dorsal Simultanagnosia occurs usually after a stroke, or when there is damage to the parietal and occipital cortex. Dorsal Simultanagnosia (DS) is described as where a person can’t perceive more than one object at a time. (Vaughan) They often have full visual field capabilities, but they can only focus on a part of the whole. The reader describes this as restriction of attention. The website describes that there are two main types of Simultanagnosia, dorsal stream and ventral stream. Dorsal stream is what the reader focuses on. Ventral stream is where a patient can see multiple objects, but can only identify one at a time. With dorsal stream often they see one part at a time, but that part tends to fade away.
2) I chose this particular aspect of the reader, because it really jumped out at me while I was reading. I was curious as to what it would be like to see just one part of the object or one part of the whole then have it fade away. So, I looked up dorsal Simultanagnosia on Google images, because I really wanted to find a way to see what it might be like to experience DS. One image jumped out at me, I can clearly tell that this is a man walking, but it is blurry and difficult to read what the background is.
3) The site explains what DS is and then goes on to explain another form of damage called Central Simultanagnosia. The website then brings up a case study with a patient who had these symptoms. The study found that “Further testing showed that single stimuli representing objects or faces could be could be identified correctly and even recognized when shown again, whether simple or complex... If the stimuli included more than one object, only one would be identified at one time, though the other would sometimes "come into focus" as the first one went out...”
4) The reader explains what DS is almost like the website does. The reader calls this disorder a restriction of attention, which I think describes this extremely well. IT also describes DS as having the full visual field available to see normally, in terms of far up, down, left, or right, but only being able to see parts of the whole. It also describes an example with Ms. W who saw just one part of an object; she could try to identify the whole object by using the parts she saw to guess.
5) I didn’t find Dorsal Simultanagnosia is the text, but the text did describe a lot about, seeing parts of a whole. Also, it talked a lot about brightness and light and how that helps us determine shapes and see different things.
6) I am very glad that I found more information about Dorsal Simultanagnosia. The picture on the website also helped a lot with understanding visual impairments and what damage can do to the visual system.
I found Dorsal Simultanagnosia to be really interesting as well I really enjoyed the picture on your link. I think that being able to see a picture really gives you the whole affect of only being able to recognize one abject at a time. For a person with DS when they look at a picture of something and only recognize one thing how does thier brain decide what to look at first? I tried to find some information on this but I could not.
http://www.eyeassociates.com/images/visual_field_impairment.htm
1) This site describes hemianopsia. Hemianopsia is a loss of the visual field as a result of a stroke. The site talks about problems associated with the impairment and the recovery process.
2) I chose hemianopsia because the stories in the reader about visual disorders are very interesting to me. I found information on hemianopsia and it sounded similar to the other visual disorders we have read about.
3) The reader talks about visual form agnosia as a result of brain damage. Hemianopsia is also due to brain damage, specifically the brain damage associated with suffering from a stroke. Hemianopsia is is the loss of half of the field of view on the same side in both eyes. As we know, the images we see on one side travel to the opposite side of the brain. This means that damage to the right side of the brain can result in impaired left field vision in both eyes. This is what happens in hemianopsia.
People suffering from hemianopsia often run into things and are easily startled by objects or people appearing in front of them. People with a right brain injury can have a left visual field loss, perceptual problems, and even paralysis of a left leg or arm. People with a left brain injury can have right visual field loss, reading or language problems, and paralysis of a right leg or arm.
Treatment of hemianopsia includes boundary marking, multi-step saccades (first looking in the direction of the field loss before trying to locate an object), and help reading correctly. Also, the Peli Lens is used to shift the field of vision.
4) The reader talks about visual agnosia seen in Mr. S. he could not make out faces or objects. He was unable to put all the aspects of an object and combine them to make sense. This example was to show us that we construct object. The better example of hemianopsia was given in Mrs. B. She had a right hemisphere stroke which resulted in partial blindness in her left visual field and partial paralysis on her left side. She also had vivid hallucinations wich was not mentioned on the web site. The reader said these hallucination were due to the creative powers of the visual system.
5) My text doesn't talk about specific visual disorders. It talks about one side of the brain having an impact on the opposite visual field and also mentions that brain damage can impair vision.
6) I find visual impairments very interesting. It's hard to imagine having such problems with vision. These impairments are good explanations of how we see and create images.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/depression/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100231856
1) The site discusses how the weather can effect people's moods. The way that our eyes detect light ultimately are the reason for this because or neurotransmitters that are relesed when our eyes adjust to different brightnesses.
2) I thought it was interesting getting a small insight on how your eyes respond to something little like light, eventually leads to cause something much different, such as your mood on different days. I didn't realize that our eyes and the way that we see the world is related to so many more things that affect our everyday lives. It makes sense after you think about it, though.
3) The website uses the material by discussing how when we see darkness our brain releases melatonin which establishes sleep cycles. When we see light melatonin levels drop and serotonin levels go up. The serotonin levels help us wake up and make us in a better mood. This relates to how our mood is depending on the weather. Typically people are in better moods when it's nice out because there is more sunlight, which ultimately produces more serotonin in our bodies. When it's dark and gloomy out and our eyes detect this and produce the melatonin, which makes us more sleepy and not in as good of a mood.
Is this possibly why a lot of people say rainy days are great days for naps??
4) The website does not relate a lot to the reader but the reader does talk about visual intelligence and how our eyes are continuously working and perceiving the world around us. These perceptions ultimately effect almost every aspect of our lives, and according to the website, mood.
5) The text handles this topic by discussing how the light affects how we view things. It discusses why it takes us longer for our eyes to adjust and see in the dark and how shadows can create illuminations and illusions. It also slightly covers how our brain takes the information from the light in and processes it.
6) I did learn more about how our eyes detect light, but it was also interesting to me how what our eyes see and detect affects so many aspects of our lives.
I find this topic very interesting because I've realized that I feel a little more down during the winter months and a little more energetic during the summer. I found a great site to add to what you posted:
http://columbiachronicle.com/change-in-weather-could-alter-mood/
This site has a couple of different explanations of why people experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). One explanation is similar to the information you found. It says that our circadian rhythm is related to the dark and light cycle of the day. Our circadian rhythm can produce a change in hormones and that could be the cause of a change in mood for some people.
Another possible explanation given had to do with light sensitivity. It is said that certain people are more likely to have SAD than others. These people may be genetically predisposed to be sensitive to light. Along with the rods and cones of the eye, there is another cell called ipRGC. This cell seems to be directly light sensitive. The hypothesis was that mutations in this cell could cause people to be more sensitive to light and, therefore, need more light to be in a better mood. The results showed that “people with two bad copies have a six-fold greater chance of experiencing SAD, which is pretty dramatic.” The solution for SAD in people with a mutated imRGC cell is light therapy.
None of the explanations on the site are widely accepted and research is still being done on the subject.
Did you know that even on a cloudy day the light outside is magnitudes greater than even inside a brightly lit house? Maybe we shouldn't spend so much time inside.
I really enjoyed this post! I had a roommate last year who's mother suffered from seasonal affective disorder. I had no idea that it could be traced back to our eyes and the light we percieve which in turn affects the chemicals in our brain. I know that a common treatment for this disorder is a special lamp that patients sit under for so many hours a day during the winter months which tend to be more dark and "gloomy". This lamp simulates sunlight and helps with the chemical imbalance.
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/visual-hallucinations.html
1- This web site is a question from a daughter about her mothers strange hallucinations and whether her specific form of visual impairment (macular degeneration) could cause visual hallucinations.
2- I like the little case studies discussed in the reader. I find it interesting that the visual process has so many different facets to it and if any one of them malfunctions there can be strange and drastic alterations to the way one perceives their world.
3- the web site doesn't go into great detail on much. it briefly describes a few different types of impairments that can cause visual hallucinations. the site is simply a question posed about a womans mothers' hallucinations and whether or not she was faking it. I can see why it may be hard to grasp the idea that someone who is not schizophrenic is seeing colorful worms crawl across their floor. It's good that there is medical support for this poor womans condition because her daughter would probably just think she's a loony without it.
4- The reader has a similar example of a woman who has hallucinations after a stroke. While they differ in brain injury there are many similarities to the stories. It makes me wonder if maybe the visual system is so used to having such a vast amount of information to constantly process that when vision is disrupted things go haywire and insist on continuing to deliver signals. I'm fascinated by the whole thing.
5- The text really doesn't go into great detail about any specific brain injury or other disease causing visual impairments. I also didn't find any information on hallucinations, which is disappointing.
6- after looking at the site, the text, and the reader, I really just want to learn more about the topic. I find it fascinating, to say the least. For another class I did some research on different centers in the brain that deal with both dreaming and conscious visual processes, and the effect of lack of REM sleep on them. One thing they found was that schizo patients tend to have unusually high activity in these areas during waking times, which may partially account for their hallucinations. I wonder if the same areas are accountable for these types of hallucinations. Is there a hallucination center in our vision centers in our brains? hmmm....
1) I found a youtube video and also a different website that talked about people with Williams syndrome. The youtube video follows a girl that is trying to leave home and start school. While struggling with her syndrome and still leaving home. The website that I found has facts and information about the disease and what people can do to help. Also talk about the way people struggle.
2) When I was reading the reader it talked about Williams Syndrome and I thought it was interesting so I youtubed people with the syndrome. I came across this link and it was interesting to see how people acted with the syndrome. In the video it talks about how Lisa is supposed to have perfect pitch and can memorize a song after only hearing it a couple times but she has never been able to read music.
3) The video and the reader really do go hand in hand and it is just a visual aid to show how people are able to overcome Williams Syndrome. In the book it talks about how people are able to memorize hundreds of songs but if you were to ask someone to draw a picture of an elephant or something very simple they would have trouble with doing it from memory. The video also talks about how Lisa is unable to tell time and it shows how some of the most simple things are hard for people with Williams Syndrome to comprehend yet they are still able to memorize hours of music. In the school it shows how music is helping them to learn life skills and different languages. They use the school and music to help people with Williams Syndrome pick up and learn things that they would have never been able to understand. They also say that Lisa might not be able to learn how to tell time because they dont find it interesting while music helps them and is something she enjoys.
4) The reader starts with saying that one in every twenty thousand people have Williams Syndrome. Then goes on and explains the side effects also talking about how a majority of the people with the syndrome have slight forms of mental retardation. Than they way it is related to sensation and perception is how they are able to memorize countless songs yet cant draw a simple figure from memory. They would be able to draw an elephant for example but would not be able to assemble it completly properly, putting the legs, body, and trunk in random spots.
5) The text does really well and it also helps people understand exactly what is happeing with a person that has Williams Syndrome. It talks about how its dealing with the seventh chromosome and what it exactly would be like to have this type of disease.
6) Before reading this chapter I had never heard of Williams syndrome and I find it interesting how people are still learning more and more about the actuall disease. Than after watching the video I was able to see what they were actually talking about with people being able to remember countless songs yet still having trouble with simple like drawing an elephant. I also found it interesting to see how people have learned so much about it that they have it narrowed down to how many people and in what chromosone and what happens. Its amazing to see the things that we are still learning about everyone today and its also neat to see how people with a fairly rare disease are still able to continue with their day to day lives.
Here are my websites:
https://health.google.com/health/ref/Williams+syndrome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pyNe2TBQi8
sorry about not putting them up above
http://www.mydr.com.au/eye-health/eye-anatomy
1. This site discusses the anatomy of the eye and the function of the different parts. The main topics discussed on this site are: eye protection, structures of the eyeball: The outer layer, the middle layer, and the inner layer, and eye movements. The terms used on this site are also used in our text, such as: retina, lens, blind spot, fovea, vitreous humor, and pupil.
2. I chose the structure of the eye because it is what I am most interested in, and it is something that I understand. Although it wasn't a human eye, I felt that the cow eye dissection was very informative and taught me a great deal about how the parts of the eye work. Also, both of my texts do a great job explaining the structure of the eyeball.
3. This site complies with the reader and my text by explaining the terms in the same fashion as both of my books do. The site talks about how the iris is the coloured part of the eye that controls the size of the pupil. When in bright light, the iris reduces the pupil size to restrict how much light enters the eye, and when in dark light, the iris opens up the pupil to allow for more light to enter the eye. My text explains this process in the same way, and I find the way the pupil works is very interesting, especially when I go to the doctor to get my eyes dialated. I found a video on youtube that shows this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlqTh1a_yMw
4&5. The reader doesn't go into as much detail as my textbook does about the functions of the different parts of the eye. In my Goldstein textbook it states the same information about how the iris opens and closes the size of the pupil depending on the contrast of light. The text also talks about the blind spot and how it is the area where no receptors in the place where the optic nerve leaves the eye.
6. After reading the text, the reader, the website, and they youtube video, I understand that the structure of the eye is very important and that each part plays a crucial role in our vision. I also feel like I have learned more because I read things out of the text and reader than I had just skimmed earlier, but I really took the time to learn about the parts of the eye. The youtube video showed exactly how I feel after I get my eyes dialated.
There is much better information on this topic. There is legitimate research. I will find you some, but now I must research Bipolar II for another class. For now, I will say that I don't believe light therapy is the only solution. I think there are less expensive solutions and light therapy doesn't work for everyone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PJ391MDtpo&feature=related
Lasik Eye Surgery in 6 minutes:
The reason why I choose this video is that it touches and shows how the eye process information to the brain. The procedure of Lasik eye surgery is to correct vision abnormalities’ such as near or far sightedness which is the eye being too short or too big.
The procedures: First they numb the eye, the patient mot sedated because he or she has to focus on a dot were the optometrists fixes a designated point where he suctions the eye ball from moving around. He then marks the area and proceeds to cut a thin layer of the eye leaving a flap, as a laser is sending impulses called ablate to the retina. The portion that was cuts is reattached and smoothens with a flat q-tip looking instrument. After the proceeded is completed, dark glasses are put on so the light does to irritate the sensitivity of the eye or eyes that were operated on, and a solutions is then used for about two – three weeks so the eye can heal.
You may be asking how this relates to the text we are reading, and my answer is it has everything to do with the process of perception of what we see every day. If we are not getting the right amount of lighting to the retina then the process is not being sent to the brain at the same time making our vision a false vision. As light or light spectrum is being proceed by our field of vision are being processed slower or longer because the shape of the eye near/ far sightedness by the cons and the rods locate in the retina. As it is then processed by the photo receptor and the signal is sent to the primary visual cortex located in the occipital lobe. Describe in the text by Goldstein (2007) and in the Hoffman (1998) chapter 3&4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga7apTYrLuc&feature=related
About a month or two ago a lady is able to see because of a procedure were they extract her tooth and cutting it down the middle using the nerve portion placing it into her eye making her see again for the first time after 9 years. See how science can change and help people.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10773391/Auditory-and-Visual-system
1. I chose a couple websites that I believe were connected in analyzing the information presented in this chapter. This first site basically elaborates in the auditory and visual system. It shows the terms and how they work together in our construction of visual intelligence. It also shows some excellent figures to show how these terms work. The best part about this site was that it gave some key ways to remember these terms and concepts shown. As shown in the reader, there were some terms about the eye itself and some terms about the process in which our brain goes about constructing an object. This site actually touched on practically all of the terms and showed an excellent form of memorizing them by using mnemonics.
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
The second site was used because it shows some optical illusions that describe some of the rules in this chapter. It shows a total of 86 illusions and how they test our visual intelligence. I found some simultaneous brightness contrast illusions that I believed to be very intriguing as well as some subjective figures that were distinctive in using the construction of convex cusps. The categories for finding illusions were motion& time, luminance & contrast, colour, geometric & angle illusions, space 3D& size constancy, gestalt effects, and specialty with faces. Each one of the illusions tells you how it dupes you and tells how to construct the figure to get the right look at the object. Also the website gives some history as to how optical illusions came about and some new information discovered about them. It shows some awards and recognition optical illusions have acquired over the years as well.
2. I chose these sites because I find this information to be important due to the fact that it keeps coming up in multiple chapters of the text and reader. I found the visual system anatomy to be intriguing because I want to be able to understand the parts of the brain and its functions that have to deal with visual intelligence. This will enhance my knowledge for this class as well as in general. One thing I can’t stand is when someone brings up a subject you have no recollection or knowledge of. By learning this terminology and structures of the visual intelligence system, it will enable me to talk about these concepts intelligently as well as give me a broader knowledge of a subject. Also this other site had me hooked because it ties into how we construct everything we see. By displaying the illusions, it helps to recognize them so that you can be more cautious in your construction of objects or whatever the case may be. One day you could be asked to analyze an illusion for a million dollars and I want to be the one that is aware so I could construct the image based on the rules displayed in the visual intelligence book.
3.The first site used more of an informative method of displaying the key terms and structures in the anatomy of the visual system. Also it showed various figure to help you understand the layout of this system. This would assist you to construct based on images as to how the brain is functioning with regards to the visual system. Another thing this site did was focus on four key terms of a specific process instead of giving a heap of them with multiple processes. The visual pathway was chosen to be the process in which they analyzed thoroughly. Those terms were optic nerve, Optic chiasm, lateral Geniculate, and the visual cortex. Optic nerve is a mechanism that sends electrical signals to the brain. Optic chiasm talks about how different eyes construct object then the cross fire to the opposite sides with one another to compare the images. If they are in agreement then it sense the message to the visual cortex for the construct of one object. Lateral Geniculate serves as a twin relay station that is deeply embedded in all hemispheres of the brain. After the impulses travel through the relay station they send the impulses directly to the primary visual cortex. This enables you to detect organizational aspects of a scene there different shapes as well as the coloring tone. The visual cortex sends messages at a greater level the primary cortex. These terms are supported by what the textbook and the reader. This website breaks these terms down better than the text and reader which cause you to get a better understanding of the material. I think this is helpful in the memorization process because you can focus and zoom in depth with each one which allows you to get the meat and the concept more thoroughly. In the usage of strong visual aids, it showed some of the visual defects and how they are formed in the visual structure.
The second site shows a display of various optical illusions in which show how the different rules are being broken in the construction of the objects. In displaying them, they give brief descriptions of how the illusion takes place. It presents the information by using more of a visual concept by showing various illusions for a person to view. Just about all the things shown in this chapter there was an illusion given that could be placed with multiple terms in the reader. There were several illusions that displayed the simultaneous brightness contrast such as the induced grating, shaded-diamond illusion, and many others. I saw a cool T-junction illusion which was also discussed in the reader. This had to do with rule 11 which stated to “construct subjective figures that occlude only if their convex cusps.”
4. The reader presents the material by showing various optical illusions and relating them to various rules and concepts discussed in this chapter. It also has a little biological section where it describes terminology that is consistent with the text and the first website I found. In displaying the illusions with the terms discussed, it helped get a grasp on the various concepts. In looking at the biological meat of the chapter, it basically describes the seven parts of the eye and what each part was used for. The retina was a key term that was focused on by saying that we discreetly through the retina. In conjunction to this it talks about how light is reflected on the retina in the form of intromission and extramission theory which was proposed by Plato. The reader also uses various examples to describe key points. Mr. S was a person had a visual impairment called visual agnosia in which he couldn’t construct objects because his ability to detect colors, motions, and edges was severely affected. In using this example, showed us that we in fact construct objects based on basically colors, motions, and edges.
5. The text elaborates on how the eye views light also it shows 12 parts of the eye when the reader uses only 7. Also it showed the processing of the retina which also has to do with the conception of light. In connection with the website and the reader it shows the spatial figure of the visual cortex that was easy to analyze. The website just did a better job than the text in breaking the terms down. Also in chapter 8 it talks about blind spots with driving which have to do with illusions. A key term used was “illusory conjunction which is and “erroneous combination of two features in a visual scene.” The example used was when we construct a red x when the display contains red letters and xes but no red xes. It also deals with occlusion which was mentioned in the reader. In the observation of objects, it’s hard for them to present themselves as isolations, but they are partially hidden by other objects. This ties in to the 3D and nonaccidental features in which an object is not dependant on the exact view position of the observer.
6. There are so many phenomena the go into analyzing the visual system as well as putting it to test through the use of illusions. I am starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together when looking at the statement made by Hoffman that we construct everything we see. This still has my undivided attention because I can’t wait to learn more about this. When information is presented in way of excitement and curiosity, it attracts people to want more of what they are learning which is the case for me.
1) After reading through chapter four I found the opening story interesting that discussed Dorsal Simultanagnosia. According to the website (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultanagnosia) in general it talks about mainly simultanagnosia however; it goes into detail about the two types (dorsal and ventral) simultanagnosia. Below I have listed the definintons of both Dorsal and Ventral
Simultanagnosia can be divided into two different types: dorsal and ventral, with each taking its name from the dorsal and ventral circuits concerned with the perception of objects’ shapes and locations, respectively. These two forms of simultanagnosia are associated with different symptoms as well as damage to separate areas of the brain. Dorsal simultanagnosia results from bilateral lesions to the junction between the parietal and occipital lobes.[1] For patients with dorsal simultanagnosia, perception is limited to a single object without awareness of the presence of other stimuli. Thus, a task such as navigating through a room is difficult since he is aware of only one object at a time and may collide into various objects because he is unaware of them. Additionally, motion appears to interfere with perception. Ventral simultanagnosia results from damage to the left inferior occipito-temporal junction. Patients with ventral simultanagnosia differ from those with dorsal simultanagnosia in that they are able to see several objects at once, but their recognition of objects is piecemeal, or limited to one object at a time. Thus, individuals with ventral simultanagnosic symptoms are capable of navigating through a room without bumping into furniture. The website also goes into further explaination of the causes, diagnosis, proposed theories for mechanism of action and treatment options.
2) After reading chapter four I was intrique and wanted to learn and research more about the dorsal simultanagnosia. I thought it was fascinating that there was a visual impairment where someone could only see one of two objects presented. It fascinates me when our eyes are so complex and from individual to individual our vision is so different.
3) The website gave a wide varitey of information. Although the reader preseted the definition of what dorsal simultanagnosia was, it did not go into great detail about the cause, diagnosis, treatment etc. etc. let alone discuss the other type of simultanagnosia. However; I'm glad that the reader gave me the opportunity to research this topic more because it something that is very interesting to me. 4) The reader only gave a definition of what Dorsal Simultanagnosia and presented this visual impairment in a story however; how it was presented made me eager to learn more about the subject.
5) Dorsal Simultanagnosia was not presented in my textbook, however; it would have been interesting to see a third source of information's point of view of this subject.
6) Although, the textbook didn't provide any information about dorsal simultanagnosia, the other two sources of information provided and immense amount of information about the topic. After comparing these two sources of information I understand that there are differences among dorsal and ventral simultanagnosia and that dorsal simultanagnosia is an impairment that starts in the occipital lobe and only allows those who suffer from this impairment to see one object at a time.
1. I did not choose a website, but rather a research article i found on the web.
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/reprint/29/31/9719.pdf
While we were dealing with visual perception I randomly wondered whether blind people needed to blink or not. Not knowing any blind people, all I had to go off were movies. Most of the blind in movies don't blink, talk about painful. (insert ben stein clear eyes joke here) so i went about finding out. While thinking about the blind I also wondered how they perceived things. It's wives tales that they have sub-sonic hearing, or all the other senses increase when the sight goes.
The article I found was interesting in that it tested for how the blind do receive information, and how they process it. Sighted and congenitally blind participants were used. The authors hypothesize that the brain develops a "mirror system" This should help clarify
"In our daily life, we learn novel behaviors from others by observing
their actions and understanding their intentions. A particular class of neurons, discovered in the monkey premotor and parietal cortex, discharges both when the monkey performs a goal directed action and when the animal observes another individual
performing the same action. These neurons have been named “mirror neurons”"
This system is the basis of understanding behaviors and intention. The authors wanted to know to what extent the visual side of this mirror system played in understanding these behaviors and intentions. Sighted participants were shown a variety of things including Motor pantomimes of actions, auditory sounds of these actions, and a visual performance of them as well. Blind participants were shown all but the visual enactments. They used fMRI (function magnetic resonance imaging) to map areas of activity in the brain in both sighted and blind participants. The result was an overlap in the areas of the brain that used this "mirror system" in both parties, suggesting that the blind can perceive nearly as well as the sighted, based on behavior and intentions
2. I chose this article because of the visual perception we've been queuing on in class. We've learned how we perceive things and how we construct everything around us. But how do people without a visual aid do so and survive?
3. The article does many things to further our understanding of the visual system. The authors (8 in total) talk about construction of sensory visuals in learning and perception of others behaviors in order to adapt to a sightless world. They give us a basis on how the blind go about constructing their world. While they do not visually construct peoples behaviors, they can interpret them through the use of auditory cues.
4. The reader goes a long way in describing how the sighted see. We construct a vast multitude of objects and perceive them in automatic ways. We construct crisp lines, curves, cusps, bulges, bumps, and everything in between. Everything we see is of our own minds construction. The blind have no minima rule and no means of visual construction. They cannot fill in what they can't see, so the brain adapts and learns how to pick up on movements, facial gestures, and intentions by the use of sound
5. The text doesn't go on to elaborate about the blind. It would be an interesting side tidbit if it did however.
6) After reading these three sources I now know how Stevie Wonder can have a conversation with you and understand your feelings. Stevie could also figure out the intention of a behavior based on auditory cues of your moving body parts. It's also a good assumption to say that Stevie heavily relied on the "Mirror System" to learn how to play piano. When he was being taught he undoubtedly listened to the gaps of silence in between keystrokes to figure out certain notes and chords to play while tickling the ivories.
http://psych.hanover.edu/JavaTest/Media/Chapter06.html
1) This is the site of a sensation and perception class of a college in Indiana. I was interested in this site because it uses a lot of interactive illustrations and experiments to explain the content of the class.
2) I choose color because I found interesting how color, something that seems to be a property of objects, is also constructed by our visual system. Moreover, the visual pigments that allow us to construct color can be linked to a specific gene code meaning that there is scientific proof that color is constructed.
3) This site explains that the experience of color can be described by calling on its three dimensions which are hue, saturation and brightness. It also talks about the Trichromatic theory of color and explains that there are three types of cones in our visual system that respond differently to different wavelengths.
One interesting thing the site talks about is the way we make color matches. For example, televisions do not reproduce the physical wavelengths of any object but they reproduce the color. It is important to understand that there is a difference between wavelengths of light and color; wavelengths never blend, colors do. Nevertheless, we still make a color matches between two objects that are made up of dissimilar wavelengths.
The site also explains the different types of color deficiencies in more detail than the reader. This site refers to these conditions as color deficiencies not color blindness, because people who are said to be color blind still have some form of color vision but it is deficient in some respect to normal color vision. There are individuals that lack one of the visual pigments as explained in the reader, and there are also individuals that have the three color pigments but one of the pigments doesn’t match a normal observer’s pigment. This deficiency is called anomalous trichromats and there are three types; when different red cone pigment (long wavelength) is called protanomalous, when different green cone pigment (medium wavelength) is called deuteranomalous, and when different blue cone pigment (short wavelength) is called tritanomalous.
What I liked the most about this site is that there are several interactive exercises that allowed me to experience de construction of color and to understand how perception can be different from one individual to another. It also shows us how things would look like if one of our pigment molecules’ genes was defective or absent.
4) The reader explains that the process of color construction starts in our retina. In the retina there are 3 types of cons, each of which have different pigment molecules that respond differently to light; pigment S responds to short wavelengths (blue), pigment M responds to intermediate wavelengths (green) and pigment L responds to long wavelengths (red). This is called the Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory of color vision. Each molecule has a specific gene code and if one of these genes is missing or defective, then you will lack the corresponding visual pigment causing color blindness. The condition known as tritanopia occurs when individuals lack the S pigment and they can’t construct differences between blue and yellow. The lack of M or L pigments, conditions known respectively as deuteranopia and protanopia, makes it impossible to construct differences between red and green.
5) In addition to this material, the textbook explains that color has an important signaling function, for example to discriminate between a red or a green traffic light or to know whether a fruit is ripe or not. Color is also useful to help us identify and classify things facilitating perceptual organization, which is crucial to the survival of many species, for example to see a predator or a prey against a varied background.
I think it is also important to know that adding colors is different from adding paints. When we add colors by superimposing colored lights we are mixing short, medium, and long wavelengths which are all reflected into our eyes resulting in the perception of white. This is called additive color mixture. On the contrary, subtractive color mixture results when we mix paints because instead of adding wavelengths, we are subtracting from the amount of light reflected with every glob of paint we add.
6) After reading the three sources of information I understand the process of color construction in more detail and I know more about the different types of color deficiencies and their causes. Since seeing in color has always been an innate process for me, it was interesting to learn that perceiving color is important for the survival of our and other species.
I choose this topic because I was unsatisfied with how the chapter briefly talked about the topic of Williams syndrome. I was interested in this syndrome because one of my new born cousins was diagnosed with it and I wanted to learn more information to share with my family.
The topic I chose for this divergence was Williams syndrome. The syndrome is a result of a genetic defect that effects one out of 20,000. Effects of the syndrome consist of elfin facial appearance, mental retardation, high levels of calcium, heart/kidney defects and malformations of the skeletal muscles and endocrine system. The reader also mentioned that many are gifted in music and vocabulary skills. In relation to the reader humans with this syndrome have difficulties placing the right parts in the right places when reproducing drawings. Reason provided was that a small imbalance in neurotransmitters (paraprosopics) prevents proper function.
The website I found was the Williams Syndrome Association. http://www.williams-syndrome.org/
This site is the official information site for individuals with Williams syndrome. The site contains general information about the organization, news associated with the syndrome. It also provides information to help parents, teachers and doctors give help to them provide support to the effected individuals.
1) http://vectors.usc.edu/issues/4/malperception/intro.html
I found this wonderful website which outlines many of the ‘malperception’ disorders we’ve been reading about. The best part about the site is that at the end of each discussion of a disorder they have a link to an animated example of what it would be like to experience the world with that particular type of disorder. Some examples are: ahomgenepsy, which was uncovered as an early warning sign of paranoid schizophrenia in which patients see dots at the intersection of lines which are not actually there; bathosmigia, a condition where depth perception is scrambled or reversed such that objects can be seen as closer than objects that are in front of them (cool thing about this is that their minds fill in the occluded sections of the object to make it whole); and heterostereopsis, a super sweet condition whereby everything is seen as 3D even pictures that have the slightest hint of depth are seen as jumping off the surface. (All of these disorders are fake or distorted, explanation in question 3).
2) Many of the most important breakthroughs in psychology have been through the study of psychological disorders. Whether it was Phineus Gage, split-brain patients, or any of the numerous cases Oliver Sacks has written about in all his books. By demonstrating that damage or heightened activity in particular areas of the brain causes systematic effects we can begun to uncover the function behind various structures. Disorders that are naturally occurring allow us to study phenomena that cannot be ethically (sometimes even physically) created/manipulated in a lab.
Similarly with vision, our visual intelligence is so close to being perfect that we must create incredibly sensitive and sophisticated tests in order to demonstrate that what we are seeing is not really what we are seeing. These disorders highlight the constructive nature of our visual experiences.
3) Wow, I was typing this as I read the whole website and just found a “commentary” on these disorders by a retired Air Force 2nd Lieutenant who believes aliens have systematically caused these disorders in order to subvert our ability to defend ourselves from their inevitable attack. Upon closer examination of this site and visiting some online forums I frequent, has demonstrated that 90% of the stuff on this website is made up to support a very strange agenda. They have done a fantastic job however of mixing real science with made up stuff. The following appear to be real disorders: hemi-akinetopsia (inability to see motion, in one or both visual fields), logophrenia (this is preoccupation with thoughts about words, not the description they claim wherein intense hallucination accompanies metaphorical language), paraprosopia (seeing faces as grossly distorted), prosopagnosia (face blindness), simultanagnosia (inability to see more than one object, or one part of an object at a time), visual form agnosia (inability to detect objects).
Six of the thirteen disorders are real, the others are quite bizarre (including being able to see a 4th dimension) but seem believable, yet as far as I can tell have no other online sources which confirm their existence. This could be that they use the wrong word for the term or exaggerate other conditions using made up terms. However, their visual representations of the above mentioned disorders does at least make the website useful so long as you know the rest is bunk. The following will discuss only these disorders.
4) VI follows in line with this website for the most part regarding the legitimate disorders. Ch. 3 begins with an explanation of visual form agnosia (VFA), surely one of the worst visual impairments to have. This disorder is probably the strongest case for using the term visual ‘intelligenc’ since someone with VFA can clearly not put any of the their visual ‘thoughts’ together. All the shapes, edges, and colors were processed he just couldn’t do anything with this stuff. If our visual experience was passive perception this disorder could not exist (nor any other); there could be only blindness. Similarly with dorsal simultagnosia (beginning of Ch. 4) the person can see the exact same visual scene as the rest of us, but somehow they are able to attend to only one object, or part of an object at a time. Both the book and website explain how people with this disorder have to act as detectives piecing together a handle, water, a saucer, the rim of a glass, and a hand to form the idea that someone must be pouring a cup of water. This detective works makes the idea that we are constructing what we see explicit.
5) The text talks a lot about object recognition in Ch. 5. VI talks almost exclusively about rules which we use to construct our visual experience out of the 2d image at our retina. The text however discusses a number of various theories which describe various ways we go about constructing objects, e.g. structural description and RBC models. These disorders help to uncover why/how some of these theories probably developed. For instance, many of the disorders have to do with not being able to detect some ‘chunk’ of our visual experience. One structural-description theory suggests that we perceive objects by recognizing various “geons” and add them up to perceive the object. A curved handle + an upright cylinder = a cup. This helps explain the problem that patients suffering from visual form agnosia have; they can’t do the math, they can only recognize the parts on the left side of the equation.
The text also discusses a phenomenon known as binocular rivalry. This means that when two different objects are presented to the left and right visual field attention must switch back and forth between them. A person can’t make sense of both of them at the exact same time. This also helps to explain how someone with simultagnosia can see the whole picture, but only get’s parts of it one at a time. They can only attend to one small piece at a time and must switch from tire to steering wheel to windshield, etc.
6) I must say I’m more convinced with the arguments in VI than with some of the theories discussed in the text. The image-description models in the text seem hard for me to believe; that we have 100’s of images of objects from all angels stored in our brain and then sort through them to recognize a chair from directly overhead? Similarly with geons and other such “chunks.” For me I really think object recognition is really similar to decision making under other circumstances just a lot faster sometimes. We see images passively at our retinas, use rules to distinguish figure from ground (I’d have to say this is predominantly an ‘edge’ recognition system, not seeing various parts like geons) and determine other aspects of the object, then decide what it probably is given the input, not given other stored images that are similar. We’ll see how this theory holds up through the rest of the semester. It may be that figuring out where the “rules” are stored is more complex than figuring out where all the geons are!