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Researchers pinpoint where the brain unites our eyes' double vision
If you have two working eyes, you are live streaming two images of the world into your brain. Your brain combines the two to produce a view of the world that appears as though you had a single eye -- like the Cyclops from Greek mythology.
And that's a good thing, as the combination of the two images makes for a much more useful impression of the world. With one eye shut, catching a ball or parking a car become far more difficult.
"If you're reaching out with your hand, you want to aim not at where things appear to be, but where they are," says Bas Rokers, psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Two eyes are giving you two images that don't by themselves tell you where things are relative to your hand. It's the integrated information that tells you where things are."
Using prisms and an advanced brain scanner, Rokers and collaborators at Utrecht University in the Netherlands have found the point in the human brain -- very early in image processing in the visual cortex -- in which the transformation to a cyclopean view of the world takes place.
Their work, published recently in the journal Current Biology, may aid in the treatment of vision problems like amblyopia, or lazy eye.
"We're not necessarily interested in what activity stimuli produce on our sensory organs while we're using them," Rokers says. "We're interested in what they tell us about where things are in the world. This transformation to cyclopean vision is central to figuring that out."
According to Rokers, a group of neurons in the visual cortex called the striate cortex, or V1, is handling two sets of pictures from our eyes -- one view each from the left eye and the right eye. Move one step down the line to an area called V2, part of the extrastriate cortex, and the neurons have largely shifted to a single picture. The research clears up unsettled questions as to what purpose V2 serves in visual processing.
The researchers tucked people in functional MRI machines, and had them peer into a prismatic device that showed each eye a different image. For example, the left eye would see a vertical black bar slightly to the right of center, while the right eye saw the bar slightly to the left of center.
"The brain processes the two presented images like it would with any normal pair of images, and perceives them as a single bar in the center of the field of vision, but shifted slightly backwards in depth," Rokers says.
Because the MRI results are sharp enough to discern the different brain activity signatures for each vertical bar, the researchers could compare brain activity when the bars were presented to each eye separately or both eyes together.
"What we show is that in V1, that activity goes with the presented location -- some neurons see the left eye image, some the right eye image," Rokers says. "But in V2, the activity matches the perceived, centered location. V2 is working with the combined, cyclopean image."
The researchers plan to shift their attention to finer layers of V1, as well as to an area called V3, with an eye toward figuring out where the brain brings depth and object shape into focus. Rokers expects that a better understanding of the way images are processed will help with ongoing research into disorders like lazy eye. In amblyopia, the most common cause of vision problems among children around the world, the brain learns to favor the images of a stronger eye over those from one that is weaker or misaligned.
"Now that we know where to look in amblyopia, we can focus on these brain regions and see if the representation has shifted toward the dominant eye," Rokers says. "And we could get a sense of how successful we've been in treating amblyopia if we see activity in V2 shift back toward a cyclopean representation."
Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison. The original item was written by Chris Barncard. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Martijn Barendregt, Ben M. Harvey, Bas Rokers, Serge O. Dumoulin. Transformation from a Retinal to a Cyclopean Representation in Human Visual Cortex. Current Biology, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.003
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150723181244.htm
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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