March 30th: Do you have visual pareidolia? Sunday, Mar 30 2008

See a face? A bearded Japenese face? Well you have just experienced the common phenomena of pareidolia!!!

 

While thinking of answering the question of whether faces are objects, I was reminded of the visual phenomena in which people experience exactly the opposite of this question: they see faces in objects.  The psychological phenomena is called pareidolia, and is defined as when  a vague and random stimulus, often an image or sound, is mistakenly perceived as being recognizable and significant, and the most common form is seeing faces in objects or nature.  Examples include seeing forms in clouds, the man in the moon, and the intense picture above. Here is an AMAAAZING website you should definitely check out for tons of examples of slightly freakish paridolia seen in everyday household objects. I also found an entire category of pareidolia that involves giving religious significance to meaningless and random objects, deemed as signs from God, an example of which is below.

 

A tree in Sydney, Australia that bears resemblance to a Muslim performing daily prayer and coincidentally faces in the direction of Mecca, Saudi Arabia 

 

 The phenomena of pareidolia reveals how our human brains are actually designed to recognize which is familiar to us, as we studied in class; however, with pareidolia, this ability is in a sense simply overused in the attempt to place recognition with meaningless objects.  Yet, this ability is exactly the type that is involved in the Rorschach tests in which people are asked to put meaning to seemingly “random” ink blots.  Interestingly, though, pareidolia is classified as a type of apophenia, which is an experience of seeing patterns or connections in ransom or meaningless data and is defined as a Type I error, in that is it a sort of false alarm or false positive that occurs in people due to an excess in sensitivity.  Although I couldn’t find more specific details as to why this occurs exactly in the brain, most likely because scientists are still trying to figure that out themselves, it seems that the process of visual pareidolia MUST be involved with the “what” pathway of object recognition and the Infero-Temporal Cortex.

 

 

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March 23rd: A Modern Day Phrenology? Sunday, Mar 23 2008

(National Geographic’s famous 1985 cover of the “Afghan girl”)

During my weekend websurfing, I came across a really intriguing study that links a person’s personality to the pattern of his or her iris! Yes, the paper actually proposes that the “crypts, pigment dots, and contraction furrows” of the iris can indicate aspects of personality, due to the idea that there are certain genes that influence both eye and brain development. Thus, a certain gene that codes for a specific personality trait such as truthfulness, might be encoded within the iris with a characteristic pattern. The published study declares that out of the 428 irises studied, the researchers determined certain patterns in the iris that showed “warm-heartedness and trust, or neuroticism and impulsivenesss” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6375381.stm).

The idea does seem shocking at first, but when related to the idea that certain disorders causing brain disabilities such as Down Syndrome are associated with distinctive facial features, the possibility of personality traits being encoded in the iris doesn’t seem so radical. The study does include the fact that the retina is an extension of the central nervous system, as we discussed in class, so genes encoding for our brains and eye are definitely related. This is the argument used by people who favor encoding iris information of passports for profiling purposes, kind of like the security clearance systems used in government restricted entry sites that we have all seen shown in movies about he CIA/FBI. Anyways, the idea of an iris database seems like a pretty cool idea to me, but I don’t know about the idea that the pattern of my iris explaining aspects of my personality…that sounds waay too much like a modern version of Gall’s phrenology (And we know how “scientific” that idea was)

The study did not claim any relation to the field of iridology, which seems to be pretty shady but is VERY interesting to read about. So if you’re interested, hit up this baller link for more information about what markings in your iris might show about problems in your body from kidney and gall bladder disease to high blood pressure .

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March 16th: Trippy Sunday, Mar 16 2008

       A topic I have always been weirdly interested in is the world of hallucinogenic drugs, and since such substances are known for their unique effects on perception, especially including the visual system, I thought the topic would be interesting to discuss. (And I have provided some cool visual stimulation along the way…)

           Hallucinogens are drugs that cause profound distortions in a user’s perceptions of reality. Users often see images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but do not actually exist.  Hallucinogens initiate their effects by disrupting the interaction of nerve cells and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Some common hallucinogens are LSD, PMA, 2 C-B, peyote, and certain varieties of mushrooms.

            I have always been fascinated by the descriptions of visual experiences these substances seem to be able to cause, and its sad how little research has been performed in recent decades to understand the exact pathways these drugs use in the brain and how they manage to alter visual systems to produce such extraordinary effects.  For example the drug 2 C-B commonly causes open-eye visual patterning, color shift, and wavering or moving vision are for many people and more likely at higher doses. Thus the drug produces intense visual effects, such as moving objects leaving trails behind them, surfaces covered with geometric patterns that may appear to be moving or breathing, and colors that seem to appear from nowhere. 

Psilocybin mushrooms’ sensory experiences are highly documented, and many users report “enhancement and contrasting of worldly colors, strange light phenomena such as auras around lights sources, surfaces that seem to ripple, shimmer, or breathe, and other such visual hallucinations.  At higher doses mushrooms can elicit a variety of intensified and distinct perceptual changes: complex open and closed eye visuals of form constants or images, objects that warp, morph, or change solid colors, a sense of melting into the environment, trails behind moving objects” (Wikipedia.com). Another interesting effect users speak of is the ability of mushrooms to cause their senses to overlap, a phenomena called color synesthesia, in which a person might see specific colors in response to certain auditory sounds.  The use of most psychedelic substances causes normal everyday actions to be intensely stimulating to the visual system, such as when the surface of wood can seem to flow like a river.

      Interestingly, it has often been described that psychedelic experiences free the mind from the everyday restraints put on it by our limited systems of  perception.  Thus, as Timothy Leary seems to believe, hallucinogenic substances are the key to unlocking ourselves from being slaves of our visual system….I wonder what Roger Carpenter would have to say about that.

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March 8th: Save your eyes! Sunday, Mar 9 2008

             Since I suffer from myopia and am a daily contact wearer, I figured that I should use this opportunity to do so some extra research on contacts and their effects on the eye.  Upon doing research, I learned that I am a damaging my eyes every day due to several reasons! First of all, I don’t take my contacts out for weeks at a time.  Shocking, I know, but its a horrible habit I formed once I got to college and its hard to break, especially since I wear O2 optics, which can be worn for a maximum of a week.  Despite O2 optics extra breathability, however, it is suggested that you give your eyes a rest by removing your contacts lenses and letting your eyeballs get the oxygen they need.  If you don’t, like me, you risk HORRIBLE consequences, including causing the cells in your eye to expand due to oxygen starvation and infringe on your iris, eventually leading to blindness!!! WOAH. Okay I’m seriously going to being to change this habit ASAP.        

    

            Secondly, I wear lots of black eyeliner, on top of and inside of my eyelids, about every single day.  I found that wearing makeup inside of your eye is highly dangerous, especially the application part, because you can accidentally damage your cornea and make it susceptible to infection, a risk that is increased due to the usual presence of bacteria on makeup! WHAT? I was quite upset at learning this because I don’t want to even more damage my eyes, beyond what the contacts might have caused in the past few years.  However, the sad part of this whole thing is that despite knowing about the potential damage eyeliner can cause, I cannot change my ways on this one.  But I can make sure not to ever sleep in eyeliner! Yes, thats what might help save my eyes, along with beginning to take my contacts out at night.  I should see an opthamologist soon…

 Here’s a really good website on ways YOU can help protect your eyes. Check it out party people.

 

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