All Articles Tagged As: vision

A direct gaze enhances face perception (8/14/2008)

Visual system of the brain processes another person’s face more efficiently when the person’s gaze is straight ahead than when the gaze is averted. ...> Full Article

Neurobiologists discover individuals who 'hear' movement (8/11/2008)

Auditory synesthesia may not be unusual--and may simply represent an enhanced form of how the brain normally processes visual information ...> Full Article

Distinguishing between 2 birds of a feather (8/11/2008)

Brain cells processing visual information adjust their filtering properties to make the most sense of incoming information ...> Full Article

Attention grabbers snatch lion's share of visual memory (8/9/2008)

Visual memory more flexible than previously believed ...> Full Article

How the color red affects a referee's judgment (8/9/2008)

New study has found that choosing the color red for a uniform in competitive sports can actually affect the referee’s split-second decision-making ability and even promote a scoring bias. ...> Full Article

Trigger for brain plasticity identified (8/8/2008)

Signal comes, surprisingly, from outside the brain ...> Full Article

Why the slow paced world could make it difficult to catch a ball (8/7/2008)

Researchers have uncovered new information about the way that we perceive fast moving, incoming objects ...> Full Article

How carrots help us see the color orange (7/30/2008)

One of the easiest ways to identify an object is by its color -- perhaps it is because children’s books encourage us to pair certain objects with their respective colors. Why else would so many of us automatically assume carrots are orange, grass is green and apples are red? ...> Full Article

Magic is the trick to understanding the mind (7/24/2008)

Elements of human cognition and perception that are not yet fully understood by scientists may receive greater insight by analysing tricks and techniques used by magicians ...> Full Article

Team creates touch-based illusion (7/23/2008)

Mind trick yields new insights on perception ...> Full Article

Old eyes can learn new tricks; findings offer hope for adults with 'lazy eye' (7/20/2008)

New evidence that the brain regions responsible for vision are capable of adapting in adults offers new hope for those with an untreated condition commonly known as lazy eye ...> Full Article

Keeping hands where you can see 'em alters perception, study finds (7/12/2008)

Hands on steering wheel may help keep eyes on road ...> Full Article

Perception of hole size influenced by performance (7/8/2008)

Golfers who play well are more likely to see the hole as larger than their poor-playing counterparts ...> Full Article

If it's hard to read, is it hard to do? (6/25/2008)

Marketers and designers would do well to choose easy-to-read fonts ...> Full Article

Seeing music or reading colors? (6/11/2008)

Research is looking at why some people see colors when listening to music or reading. ...> Full Article

I do not see it, but my brain knows what it means (5/31/2008)

Disorder that affects perception of things on a persons left side is quite strange. ...> Full Article

Modeling how we see natural scenes (5/22/2008)

Sophisticated mathematical modeling methods and a "CatCam" that captures feline-centric video of a forest are two elements of a new effort to explain how the brain's visual circuitry processes real scenes. The new model of the neural responses of a major visual-processing brain region promises to significantly advance understanding of vision ...> Full Article

Study Says Visual System Equipped With 'Future Seeing Powers' (5/18/2008)

New research categorizes more than 50 types of illusions that help us perceive the present ...> Full Article

Sight Recovery After Blindness Offers New Insights on Brain Reorganization (5/18/2008)

Studies of the brains of blind persons whose sight was partially restored later in life have produced a compelling example of the brain's ability to adapt to new circumstances and rewire and reconfigure itself. ...> Full Article

New Research Shows Consistency in Synaesthetic Experiences (5/2/2008)

A quirky psychological phenomenon known as "grapheme-color synaesthesia" describes individuals who experience vivid colors whenever they see, hear, or think of ordinary letters and digits ...> Full Article

Mechanisms of memory identified (4/27/2008)

Major step forward in understanding how memory works ...> Full Article

Antidepressants enhance neuronal plasticity in the visual system (4/25/2008)

Researchers provide new information about the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs ...> Full Article

Scientists discover neural circuits for saccadic modulation of visual perception (4/22/2008)

Scientists trying to unravel mysteries of visual perception ...> Full Article

Scientists Map Medulla Circuitry in Fruit Flies, Setting Stage for Understanding How Color Vision Is Processed (3/27/2008)

biologists have mapped the medulla circuitry in fruit flies, setting the stage for subsequent research on how color vision is processed. The work, which appeared in the journal Current Biology, will allow future scholarship to explore how color vision is processed in the optic lobe of the fruit fly Drosophila, providing a paradigm for more complex systems in vertebrates. ...> Full Article

Seeing may be believing - but is it the same as looking? (3/27/2008)

A new study confirms that if you see it, you believe you had been looking at it ...> Full Article

Visual technology enables brain to learn in new ways (3/24/2008)

New technology is enabling researchers to translate the most abstract, complex scientific concepts into clearer, more precise 3-dimensional images than conventional visualization systems can create. ...> Full Article

Logo Can Make You 'Think Different' (3/22/2008)

Researchers find that even the briefest exposure to well-known brands can cause people to behave in ways that mirror those brands' traits. ...> Full Article

First empirical study demonstrating that populations of nerve cells adapt to changing images (3/17/2008)

Neuroscientists studying the mind's ability to process images have completed the first empirical study to demonstrate, using animal models, how populations of nerve cells in visual cortex adapt to changing images. Their findings could lead to sight-improving therapies for people following trauma or stroke. ...> Full Article

The Talking Brain (3/5/2008)

Duncan Wisbey, impressionist and voice artist on Alistair McGowan's Big Impression, and Professor Sophie Scott, a cognitive neuroscientist at UCL (University College London), will explore the human voice from the perspective of the brain in a talk given during Brain Awareness Week. The duo will discuss how our voices are perceived and produced, and how artists can change their voice to make themselves sound older, or taller, or like someone else altogether. The talk will be held at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on Tuesday 11 March 2008 at one pm. ...> Full Article

Scientists Explore Consciousness (2/19/2008)

An international team of scientists led by a University of Leicester researcher has carried out a scientific study into the realm of consciousness. The scientists have made a significant step into the understanding of conscious perception, by showing how single neurons in the human brain reacted to perceived and nonperceived images. ...> Full Article

How believing can be seeing: study shows how context dictates what we believe we see (2/18/2008)

Scientists have found the link between what we expect to see, and what our brain tells us we actually saw. The study, published in this week's PLoS Journal of Computational Biology, reveals that the context surrounding what we see is all important - sometimes overriding the evidence gathered by our eyes and even causing us to imagine things which aren't really there. ...> Full Article

Pupil Dilation Marks Decision Making (2/17/2008)

The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but the simple pupil--the circular opening at the center of the eye that contracts and dilates to regulate the amount of light the eye receives--offers a remarkable portal to the inner workings of the brain. Such is the conclusion of neurobiologist Christof Koch of the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues, who have found that changes in pupil diameter correspond to the moment when a simple decision is made. ...> Full Article

Painless migraines still pack a punch (2/10/2008)

Most migraine sufferers just want the aching to go away, but Baylor College of Medicine ophthalmologists say even "painless" migraines can still pack a punch. ...> Full Article

Creative and noncreative problem solvers exhibit different patterns of brain activity, study reveals (1/30/2008)

Why do some people solve problems more creatively than others? Are people who think creatively somehow different from those who tend to think in a more methodical fashion? ...> Full Article

New study focuses on eye movement (1/25/2008)

A scientist has uncovered one of the "missing links" in understanding visual signals that determine where and why we move our eyes to focus on details in our environment. ...> Full Article

Face Facts: People Don't Stand Out In A Crowd (1/21/2008)

Why is it difficult to pick out even a familiar face in a crowd? We all experience this, but the phenomenon has been poorly understood until now. The results of a recent study may have implications for individuals with face-recognition disorders and visual-attention related ailments -- and eventually could help scientists develop an artificial visual system that approaches the sophistication of human visual perception. ...> Full Article

The Human Brain: Detective of auditory and visual change (1/20/2008)

The human brain is capable of detecting the slightest visual and auditory changes. Whether it is the flash of a student's hand into the air or the faintest miscue of a flutist, the brain instantaneously and effortlessly perceives changes in our environment. Several studies have indicated, however, that even a small span of time in between pre- and post-change images can disturb the brain's ability to detect visual discrepancies. ...> Full Article

New method enables scientists to see smells (12/28/2007)

Animals and insects communicate through an invisible world of scents. By exploiting infrared technology, researchers at Rockefeller University just made that world visible. With the ability to see smells, these scientists now show that when fly larvae detect smells with both olfactory organs they find their way toward a scented target more accurately than when they detect them with one. ...> Full Article

Twins study shows genetic basis for face and place recognition (12/19/2007)

New evidence suggests our brains are hardwired before birth to recognize faces and places. But in contrast, the neural circuitry we use to recognize words develops mainly as a result of experience. ...> Full Article

Distorted self-image the result of visual brain glitch, study finds (12/9/2007)

Although they look normal, people suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, perceive themselves as ugly and disfigured. New imaging research reveals that the brains of these people look normal but function abnormally when processing visual details. ...> Full Article

For neuroscientist the eye is a window to mind's workings (12/6/2007)

Neuroscientist uses visual 'tricks' to learn more about how the brain perceives the world. ...> Full Article

Neuroscientists Show Naturally Occurring Chemical in Brain Enhances Visual Processing (11/22/2007)

Neuroscientists have found that a naturally occurring chemical in the brain can enhance visual processing and suggest that this chemical may represent part of the biological basis of visual attention ...> Full Article

Scientists uncover how the brain controls what the eyes see (11/21/2007)

Expectations affect how we see things and experience life ...> Full Article

Researchers find memory can be manipulated by photos (11/20/2007)

Viewing doctored photos leads to inaccurate conclusions about past events ...> Full Article

How The Brain Sends Eyeballs Bouncing (11/13/2007)

All vision, including reading this sentence, depends on a constant series of infinitesimal jumps by the eyeball that centers the retina on target objects--words or phrases in the case of reading. Such jumps, or saccades, are critical to vision because only the small central region of the retina, called the fovea, produces the clear image necessary for perception. Such saccades take place several times a second and are generated within a brain region known as the frontal eye field (FEF). ...> Full Article

Sight, Sound Processed Together and Earlier than Previously Thought (10/31/2007)

The area of the brain that processes sounds entering the ears also appears to process stimulus entering the eyes, providing a novel explanation for why many viewers believe that ventriloquists have thrown their voices to the mouths of their dummies. ...> Full Article

Research may help explain aspects of synesthesia (9/26/2007)

A research team has published its findings that may help to explain the phenomenon known as synesthesia, in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway. ...> Full Article

Shape Encoding May Start In The Retina (9/17/2007)

New evidence from the University of Southern California suggests that there may be dedicated cells in the retina that help compile small bits of information in order to recognize objects. The research was conducted by Ernest Greene, professor of psychology in the area of brain and cognitive sciences at USC. ...> Full Article

Adult brain can change, study confirms (9/7/2007)

Work could aid interventions following stroke ...> Full Article

New study determines when infants can think of out-of-sight objects (9/7/2007)

New study determines when infants can think of out-of-sight objects ...> Full Article

Researcher Studies Crayfish to Better Understand Brain Processes (8/30/2007)

Voyage to the bottom of the sea, or simply look along the bottom of a clear stream and you may spy lobsters or crayfish waving their antennae. Look closer, and you will see them feeling around with their legs and flicking their antennules – the small, paired sets of miniature feelers at the top of their heads between the long antennae. ...> Full Article

Patterns Of Excitation Waves Found In Brain's Visual Processing Center (8/1/2007)

Neuroscientists have long believed that vision is processed in the brain along circuits made up of neurons, similar to the way telephone signals are transferred through separate wires from one station to another. But scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center discovered that visual information is also processed in a different way, like propagating waves oscillating back and forth among brain areas. Their findings are published in the July 5 issue of the journal Neuron. ...> Full Article

Seeing Colors: New Study Sheds Light on Sensory System Quirk (7/30/2007)

In the psychological phenomenon known as "synesthesia," individuals' sensory systems are a bit more intertwined than usual. Some people, for example, report seeing colors when musical notes are played. ...> Full Article