"Microsaccades" Help To Refresh Your Field of View 96
Ponca City, We love you writes with news of research from the Salk Institute into small, unconscious eye movements called "microsaccades," the purpose of which has been in question for many years. A recent study showed that those movements were essentially responsible for maintaining a coherent image for interpretation by the brain. They are also the cause of a famous optical illusion in which a still image appears to move.
'"Because images on the retina fade from view if they are perfectly stabilized, the active generation of fixational eye movements by the central nervous system allows these movements to constantly shift the scene ever so slightly, thus refreshing the images on our retina and preventing us from going 'blind,'" explains Hafed. "When images begin to fade, the uncertainty about where to look increases the fluctuations in superior colliculus activity, triggering a microsaccade," adds Krauzlis.'"
Re:how is this new? (Score:3, Funny)
Ditto - but back in the 70's. What next - wide ties and lapels, bell-bottoms and flood pants, nehru jackets and peasant skirts, platform shoes and disco?
Well, what the heck, if you can't get bail-out money, at least get research grant money.
Unconscious eye movement (Score:1, Funny)
Finally, a viable excuse...
"Yes, I keep glancing at your tits. Nope, sorry, I'm afraid I can't stop unconscious eye movements"
Comment removed (Score:2, Funny)
Now it all makes sense! (Score:1, Funny)
News for nerds, stuff that matters, replacement for a failing school system.
Slashdot, just like a good video streaming protocol, must send a background stream of image updates about science and knowledge, filling in all the missing pieces of static, known stuff for the lossy observers, while also trying to selectively send some content that is actually new and different.
Re:The illusions don't work for me (Score:3, Funny)
Stare at that for thirty seconds or so then look at a blank wall and blink a couple times.
Damn you! why couldn't you have provided a link like that to a sweedish swimsuit model instead... now i got this bearded freak who looks somewhat familiar to me, i think his name is Buddy... something....
Re:The illusions don't work for me (Score:4, Funny)
I tested both illusions on the link provided in the summary and neither one had the effect on me that was claimed.
If at first you don't saccade...
Re:The illusions don't work for me (Score:1, Funny)
Are you dumb or what?
It is RMS!!
Re:how is this new? (Score:5, Funny)
What's funny is, as I was concentrating on reading the last paragraph of your post, I was focusing on each word as I read it. Something seemed strange as I read, so I read it again, this time pausing for several seconds before moving to the next word.
Having already read the paragraph, I knew what it said. There was no sense of urgency in my mind, nothing to influence whatever part of my brain causes saccades to refresh my field of view so I could read the next word.
I could see each word very clearly when I first focused on it. By the time I moved my focus the the next word, I saw mostly gray.
Try it. Read this post a couple times, comprehend it, then focus on each word, individually, for several seconds.
Funny, for an instant I thought your post had some actual content, but for some reason all I can see now is the word "fnord" repeated over and over.