While driving an automobile we are encouraged to check our ‘blind spot’, the area to the back of the car on each side. This area is hard to see and objects can be hidden from our view.
The design of the eye is one of nature’s highest accomplishments. However, one of the difficulties in the design was how to get the information from the eye to the brain. The channel of information from the eye to the brain is the optic nerve. It attaches to the back of the retina and processes the information from the receptors. The place on the retina upon which it attaches creates a ‘blind spot’ of information sent to the brain.
So what does that mean? In each eye there is a place in our field of vision that does not contain any visual information, nothing. It’s a real estate issue of design. The back of the retina is only so large, the data needs to be sent to the brain for interpretation, the optic nerve is the vehicle for that transport. As the eye moves this attachment moves as well. Hey, this is only the beginning of the miracle of vision, the eye is way more complex.
How do I find that ‘blind spot’? A simple exercise will help demonstrate this ‘blind spot’.
Take a reasonably firm piece of white paper and make a small, black dot about 1/4”.
To the side of dot put a second mark like a ‘+’ sign’
Cover your right eye and hold the paper about 20 inches away with the dot on the left of the plus sign
Focus your left eye on the plus sign and slowly bring the paper towards your face. Keep looking at only the plus sign, but note that you can peripherally see the dot.
The dot will vanish at some point, approximately 15 degrees toward the outside of your straight forward vision. As you move the paper further from your face the dot still will remain invisible.(Do the reverse of this exercise for the other eye - each eye has a blind spot)
Fortunately, each blind spot is on the outside of our forward vision. One eye will always see in this ‘blind spot’ area so the brain can create a seamless experience for us. If each spot was on the inside of our forward vision would not see in front of us in certain situations.
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Have you ever had a friend say something that augments your viewpoint on a situation?
Can we trust only ourselves for an accurate surmise of any situation?
Does it seem that some ideas and concepts remain hidden in our journey for a long time?
The design of the eye is one of nature’s highest accomplishments. However, one of the difficulties in the design was how to get the information from the eye to the brain. The channel of information from the eye to the brain is the optic nerve. It attaches to the back of the retina and processes the information from the receptors. The place on the retina upon which it attaches creates a ‘blind spot’ of information sent to the brain.
So what does that mean? In each eye there is a place in our field of vision that does not contain any visual information, nothing. It’s a real estate issue of design. The back of the retina is only so large, the data needs to be sent to the brain for interpretation, the optic nerve is the vehicle for that transport. As the eye moves this attachment moves as well. Hey, this is only the beginning of the miracle of vision, the eye is way more complex.
How do I find that ‘blind spot’? A simple exercise will help demonstrate this ‘blind spot’.
Take a reasonably firm piece of white paper and make a small, black dot about 1/4”.
To the side of dot put a second mark like a ‘+’ sign’
Cover your right eye and hold the paper about 20 inches away with the dot on the left of the plus sign
Focus your left eye on the plus sign and slowly bring the paper towards your face. Keep looking at only the plus sign, but note that you can peripherally see the dot.
The dot will vanish at some point, approximately 15 degrees toward the outside of your straight forward vision. As you move the paper further from your face the dot still will remain invisible.(Do the reverse of this exercise for the other eye - each eye has a blind spot)
Fortunately, each blind spot is on the outside of our forward vision. One eye will always see in this ‘blind spot’ area so the brain can create a seamless experience for us. If each spot was on the inside of our forward vision would not see in front of us in certain situations.
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Have you ever had a friend say something that augments your viewpoint on a situation?
Can we trust only ourselves for an accurate surmise of any situation?
Does it seem that some ideas and concepts remain hidden in our journey for a long time?