Role of Expectation in What We See Is Stronger Than Previously Thought, Study Finds:
In the visual cortex, where the brain first begins building a picture of what your eyes are seeing, incoming information from the eyes merges with feedback signals containing contextual information originating from deeper in the brain. These feedback signals have long been considered merely “modulatory” – helping shift focus of attention to different parts of the visual field, for instance.
But in a new study in which [Andreas] Keller, fellow postdoc Morgane Roth, PhD, and Scanziani investigated what enables neurons in the visual system to respond to context when a stimulus is not available, they found that feedback from higher-order visual centers in the brain has much more influence over our fundamental visual processing than scientists had ever realized.
[...] “In other words – when there is nothing to see, the brain sees what it expects to see based on the context,” Keller said. “This work adds to a growing recognition of the brain as a ‘prediction machine.’ The simplest neurons of the visual cortex don’t just robotically process whatever data is coming in from the eye, but at the same time are comparing it to perhaps your whole visual life history to anticipate what you expect to see.”
Journal Reference:
Andreas J. Keller, Morgane M. Roth, Massimo Scanziani. Feedback generates a second receptive field in neurons of the visual cortex, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2319-4)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @05:56PM (5 children)
When we lost access to a convenient proving ground, we installed lights, cycle fenders and other road equipment on a single seat car so we could continue testing on empty roads. Back and forth to our chosen testing areas, we used normal suburban roads for this *very* unconventional looking car--roughly the size and shape of an early 1960s Formula One car. When I was driving the support car I got in the habit of looking at the drivers in approaching cars:
* About half swiveled their heads trying to get a better look
* The other half kept looking straight ahead as if they saw nothing
Perhaps type 2 observers didn't (subjectively) see anything? Such an odd car couldn't possibly be there, so their brain just filled in road details and edited out the "mirage"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @06:05PM (3 children)
Probably they were just unconsciously driving, reacting without thought. I often find myself doing that while driving and listening to music.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @06:26PM (1 child)
Highway hypnosis.
Damn it always scares me when I get to my location and I don't remember actually driving there...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @03:33AM
Sometimes I forget driving there and forget driving back and end up in my armchair surrounded by empty bottles. Happening more and more lately.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @06:40PM
> while driving and listening to music
Stereos in cars weren't all that great in the early 1980s (with the exception of a few hi-fi nuts). This was mid-day, middle-American suburbs, light local traffic--we stayed off the larger main roads on purpose to keep speed down when we were just transiting to near-empty roads for testing.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday June 24 2020, @06:39PM
Get distracted by strange cars, and you'll smash into a flatbed truck and decapitate yourself.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..