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I still can’t rap my mind around the fact that the onlything that we don’t actually see the objects in the world, but we only see theedges of objects. I had never thought about the world as simply changes in theintensity of light, but if I think about it now, it makes a lot of sense.

I also find it interesting that the brain is able to convert2-D images on the retina into the 3-D images that we perceive in our minds. Idon’t understand what process is going on and where this process is occurringthat is allowing the switch in dimensions. Is the image that is broadcastedonto the retina the image that is sent to the parts of the brain that deal withvision and then converted, or does this process occur in another area? Could itbe possible that the area of the brain that is involved with converting the 2-Dimage to the 3-D image is also connected to our sense of touch? We are able totouch and explore objects and understand that they do not exist in 2-D, so ourvisual cortex and the areas of the brain involved with touch communicate tocreate a more realistic picture of the world. If this is true, it would beinteresting to understand how newborns actually see the world without knowinghow the world is supposed to look.

Another interesting topic related to vision is blindsight.Blindsight occurs when an individual is able to recognize objects even if theyare unable to receive visual signals in a certain area. For instance, a man maynot be able to see anything in his right field of vision, but if a greencolored object is held on his right side, he will still be able to correctlyidentify the color of the object. To me, this phenomenon seems to be related tothe existence of the blind spot that all humans have. It may be possible thatthe brain is simply filling in the parts of the visual field that the man isunable to see because of damage to his eye, optic nerve, etc. Blindsight maywork by the same mechanisms that control the blind spot, only on a largerscale.