Remember when we used to know all those facts, Facts, FACTS!! about the human brain? So many of them seem to be falling apart now… Maybe Facts! age or something:
A recent study finds that, contrary to expectations, our visual cortex (in the back of the brain) processes what we literally see but that the frontal lobes interpret it for us.
What the participants thought they were seeing [in an optical illusion] was accompanied by activity in their frontal lobes. Study co-author and co-principal investigator Patrick Cavanagh told media that the researchers have concluded that “frontal areas are critical to the emergence of conscious perception.” That is in addition to their widely accepted roles in decision-making and thinking: “Our findings suggest that this area of the brain is also the end step for perceiving where objects are. So, that’s kind of radical.”
If the study replicates, it demonstrates, once again, that the brain is not strictly compartmentalized; a number of different parts play roles in providing us with information, illusory or otherwise…
A major consequence of the advance of modern neuroscience is that we now “know” so much less than we used to. But what we do know points us in promising research directions.
News, “Researchers: Our conscious visual perception lies outside our visual cortex” at Mind Matters News
Further reading on the human brain and mind:
Why the brain is not at all like a computer. Seeing the brain as a computer is an easy misconception rather than an informative image, says neuroscientist Yuri Danilov. Nor is it billions of little computers. That said, the brain exceeds the most powerful computers in efficiency.
How the injured brain heals itself: Our amazing neuroplasticity
High tech can help the blind see and amputees feel. Recently, six completely blind people have had their vision partially restored at the Baylor College of Medicine by Orion, a device that feeds camera images directly into the brain via electrodes, bypassing damaged optic nerves. It’s not a miracle; the human nervous system can work with electronic information.
and
New mind-controlled robot arm needs no brain implant. The thought-controlled device could help people with movement disorders control devices without the costs and risks of surgery.
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