If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Interesting vision research
There's a research case in No. Cal. that's gotten a lot of coverage in
local papers and on NPR today that I think is pertinent to how dogs process visual information. A man just regained vision after 40 years and they are studying how he processes sight. He was blinded at age 3 and they are finding that there are developmental periods where the brain sets up recognition patterns. Because he lost his sight at a time when that process was incomplete, he can receive the same visual stimula everyone else can, but interprets it differently. What's interesting is that a lot of how he sees is very much like how dogs see (except for the different number of color rods & cones, of course). Motion, colors, and shapes are immediately recognizable but he has to analyze details to come to the same conclusions that most of us instantly recognize through patterns. For example, he can't tell the gender of a face without looking at length of hair, whether the eyebrows are plucked, etc.. And things are perceived as 2 dimensional. If shown a triangle or square he immediately recognizes them, but sees a cube as a square with lines - until it is moved, then recognizes it as a cube. One of the comments from the researchers was that all animals have a base level of sight perception needed for survival, but the big evolutionary differences are in the brains, not the eyes. That the primate brain's ability to file correlations of what is seen is significantly different from other animals' and that that ability is developed rather than present at birth. If that is so, this case could be very useful because the man can articulate exactly how he perceives what he's seeing and maybe give us some insight to how those with non-human brains see things. I'll be looking for more detail on this research. Lynn K. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Interesting Article on Breeding Dogs | Suja | Dog breeds | 1 | March 31st 04 10:41 PM |
Interesting vision research | Lynn K. | Dog behavior | 8 | September 2nd 03 04:29 AM |
Interesting Vaccination Info. | Jo Wolf | Dog breeds | 1 | August 2nd 03 01:04 AM |