Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett
Author:Dean Burnett [Burnett, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
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* Some scientists have called this finding into question, arguing that this staggering number of smell sensations is more a quirk of questionable math used in the research than the result of our mighty nostrils.1
† It’s important to clarify the difference between illusions and hallucinations. Illusions are when the senses detect something but interpret it wrongly, so you end up perceiving something other than what the thing actually is. By contrast, if you smell something with no source, this is a hallucination; perceiving something that isn’t actually there, which suggests something isn’t working as it should deep in the sensory-processing areas of the brain. Illusions are a quirk of the brain’s workings; hallucinations are more serious.
‡ Not that the eyes aren’t impressive, because they are. The eyes are so complex that they’re often cited (not a pun) by creationists and others opposed to evolution as clear proof that natural selection isn’t real; the eye is so intricate it couldn’t just “happen” and therefore must be the work of a powerful creator. But if you truly look at the workings of the eye, then this creator must have designed the eye on a Friday afternoon, or while hung over on the morning shift, because a lot of it doesn’t make much sense.
§ Modern camera and computing technology means it’s much easier (and considerably less uncomfortable) to track eye movements. Some marketing companies have even used eye scanners mounted on trolleys to observe what customers are looking at in stores. Before this, head-mounted laser trackers were used. Science is so advanced these days that lasers are now old-fashioned. This is a cool thing to realize.
¶ For the record, some people claim that they’ve had eye surgery and their eye was “taken out” and left dangling on their cheek at the end of the optic nerve, like in a Tex Avery cartoon. This is impossible; there is some give in the optic nerve, but certainly not enough to support the eye like a grotesque conker on a string. Eye surgery usually involves pulling the eyelids back, holding the eye in place with clamps, and numbing injections, so it feels weird from the patient’s perspective. But the firmness of the eye socket and fragility of the optic nerve means popping the eye out would effectively destroy it, which isn’t a great move for an ophthalmic surgeon.
# Exactly how we “focus” aural attention is unclear. We don’t swivel our ears towards interesting sounds. One possibility comes from a study by Edward Chang and Nima Mesgarani of the University of California, San Francisco, who looked at the auditory cortex of three epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in the relevant regions (to record and help localize seizure activity, not for fun or anything).13 When asked to focus on a specific audio stream out of two or more heard at once, only the one being paid attention to produced any activity in the auditory cortex. The brain somehow suppresses any competing information, allowing full attention to be paid to the voice being listened to.
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