Eyesight Enhanced: Advancements in Bionic Implants and Eye Drops
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were fixes for vision diseases, such as macular degeneration and retinal vein occlusion, that could maintain vision, and in some cases improve vision—not just keep the disease from getting worse? Well, wouldn’t you know it, research done at Stanford University and Columbia University, showed that it is possible to […]
Insights into Attention and Memory: Understanding the Science Behind Focus
I remember my elementary school teachers admonishing my classmates and me not to watch television while we did our homework. The reasons given were: 1) We ended up paying more attention to the program than our homework. Of course, there were those who did their homework during the commercial breaks. 2) Our homework ended up […]
Brains and Vision—Lots Going On
More than half of the brain is dedicated to processing visual information. The processing of visual information isn’t as simple as it looks. Back in the 1950s, when scientist first discussed artificial intelligence, it was thought that teaching a computer to play chess would be difficult but teaching a computer to see would be easy. […]
What’s Going on When it Comes to Brains & Vision?
What is going on in the cellular space and the neurological space that allows us to see? As you can guess scientists have studied these things and here are what they have found. Stem Cells There have been great advancements in the development of lab-grown photoreceptors. The problem lies in implanting them. Once they are […]
When Our Eyes Work & When They Don’t
Admit it, you don’t think much about your eyes when they are working properly. After all, that is a sign that everything is healthy. The thing is how do things work between our eyes and brain and when things don’t work, can they be fixed on the cellular and genetic level. There are two research […]
Optical Illusions
Optical illusions are intriguing and sometimes baffling. In the 1990s “Magic Eye” pictures were everywhere, from mall kiosks to the back of cereal boxes. The “Magic Eye” were pictures that were distorted in such a way that a 3D image would over time appear to the viewer. The image never appeared to me, no matter […]
I’ve Seen That Before—How the Brain Discerns What is Familiar vs What is Novel Part One
As we go about our day, our eyes are taking in a lot of images and our brain is processing them all. The images range from the familiar to the novel. Once these images come into the brain, how are they processed so that we know what familiar and what is novel. Two research projects, […]
This Arc is More Plastic than Wooden
Binocular vision is a good thing. It allows humans to judge distance and depth, which gives us the ability to distinguish the relationship between objects. When the eyes aren’t in their correct position or can’t focus on the same object, then there are vision problems. It can lead to conditions such as strabismus, also known […]
Visual Processing Part Two
Since it was identified which cells do what for vision, the next question is what part of the brain is in charge of processing visual information? Vision is more complicated than it seems. For the longest time, it was thought that vision was a matter of an image that is cast on the retina and […]
Alzheimer’s and Glaucoma—Are They Related?
No one wants to be sick. No one wants to get a disease, especially diseases like Alzheimer’s and glaucoma. Glaucoma robs a person of his or her sight. Alzheimer’s robs a person of his or her mind. Interestingly enough, people who have Alzheimer’s are more likely to have glaucoma. They are both diseases that affect […]