http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Optical illusions abound in human visual perception, as demonstrated by the following well-known examples. Although many are static illusions, motion illusions also occur. Recently, scientists at Université Paris Descartes and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, University of Reading, United Kingdom, and Kyushu University, Japan discovered and investigated a new illusory motion effect, termed high phi by the authors, in which we perceive conspicuous large illusory jumps when presentation of motion signals are followed by brief visual stimuli free of detectable motion signals. The researchers found that the size of the illusory jump does not depend on the speed of the motion signals presented, but rather on spatial frequency and transient duration while jump duration depends on motion signal duration. The study's authors conclude that their findings demonstrate that existing explanations for this illusion – namely, the loss of coherent motion perception above an upper limit and the preference for minimal motion – are incomplete at best. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-motion-perception-revisited-high-phi.html Neuroscience Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:20:01 EST news285947828 Once rhesus monkeys learn to associate a picture with a reward, the reward by itself becomes enough to alter the activity in the monkeys' visual cortex. This finding was made by neurophysiologists Wim Vanduffel and John Arsenault (KU Leuven and Harvard Medical School) and American colleagues using functional brain scans and was published recently in the leading journal Neuron. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-reward-linked-image-brain-visual.html Neuroscience Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:58:30 EST news283082303 (Medical Xpress)—Visual perception is far more complex and powerful than our experience suggests. Moreover, in attempting to both understand vision and implement it in a computational device, the fact that a species' senses developed in concert with the ecological niche in which that species evolved. In our case, that means an evolutionary visual context consisting of natural objects, including mountains, rivers, trees, and other animals. Noting that neural representations of visual inputs are related to their statistical structure, and natural structures display an inseparable size hierarchy indicative of scale invariance, and scale invariance also occurs near a critical point in wide range of physical systems including ferromagnetic), researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California-San Diego recently demonstrated what their paper describes as "a unique approach to studying natural images by decomposing images into a hierarchy of layers at different logarithmic intensity scales and mapping them to a quasi-2D magnet." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-sizing-evolutionary-neurobiology-scale-invariance.html Neuroscience Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:00:06 EST news281257029 Have you ever wondered whether it's possible to look at two places at once? Because our eyes have a specialized central region with high visual acuity and good color vision, we must always focus on one spot at a time in order to see our environment. As a result, our eyes constantly jump back and forth as we look around. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-role-tiny-eye-movements.html Neuroscience Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:20:02 EST news280663370 The journal PLOS ONE has recently published a study which provides new data around attention and visual perception. The article "A role of eye vergence in covert attention" was authored by researchers from the Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (IR3C) the University of Barcelona. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-eye-vergence-visual-attention.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:48:02 EST news279456474 When we're faced with things that seem threatening, whether it's a hairy spider or an angry mob, our goal is usually to get as far away as we can. Now, new research suggests that our visual perception may actually be biased to help motivate us to get out of harm's way. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-big-teeth-threatening-closer.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:15:23 EST news274461234 (Medical Xpress)—A new study provides the first experimental evidence that the negative effects of playing violent video games can accumulate over time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-violent-video-games-equals-aggression.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:49:31 EST news274355351 Training human volunteers to control their own brain activity in precise areas of the brain can enhance fundamental aspects of their visual sensitivity, according to a new study. This non-invasive 'neurofeedback' approach could one day be used to improve brain function in patients with abnormal patterns of activity, for example stroke patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-brain-visual-sensitivity.html Neuroscience Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:05:21 EST news273863103 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers from the Université Bordeaux Segalen, France, and their Swedish colleagues have recently demonstrated that constant exposure to blue light is as effective as coffee at improving night drivers' alertness. Based on tests conducted in real driving conditions, the results have been published in the journal PLoS One. They could pave the way for the development of an electronic anti-sleep system to be built into vehicles. Before then, the scientists will be testing this equipment in a broader range of situations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-coffee-blue-night-drivers.html Other Fri, 23 Nov 2012 06:27:19 EST news272874384 Vision researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute have made a groundbreaking discovery into the optimization of light sources to human vision. By tuning lighting devices to work more efficiently with the human brain the researchers believe billions of dollars in energy costs could be saved. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-discovery-ways-optimize-sources-vision.html Neuroscience Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:00:02 EST news272216037 (Medical Xpress)—UCSF neuroscientists have found that by training on attention tests, people young and old can improve brain performance and multitasking skills. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-neuroscientists-late-retrain-brain.html Neuroscience Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:44:34 EST news271075464 Wouldn't it be amazing if our bodies prepared us for future events that could be very important to us, even if there's no clue about what those events will be? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-body-future-events-external-clue.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:28:15 EST news270131255 Little is known about oculomotor function in amblyopia, or "lazy eye," despite the special role of eye movements in vision. A group of scientists has discovered that abnormal visual processing and circuitry in the brain have an impact on fixational saccades (FSs), involuntary eye movements that occur during fixation and are important for the maintenance of vision. The results, which raise the question of whether the alterations in FS are the cause or the effect of amblyopia and have implications for amblyopia treatment, are available online in advance of publication in the November issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-abnormal-involuntary-eye-movements-amblyopia.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:07:23 EST news269622436 (Medical Xpress)—A eureka moment while watching a movie for the umpteenth time with his children has led a University of Sydney researcher to achieve a new insight into visual perception, which could benefit traditional artists and graphic designers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-pixar-revealed-dark-side-gloss.html Neuroscience Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:38:20 EST news267871081 Researchers at the Mayo Clinic say a common condition called leukoaraiosis, made up of tiny areas in the brain that have been deprived of oxygen and appear as bright white dots on MRI scans, is not a harmless part of the aging process, but rather a disease that alters brain function in the elderly. Results of their study are published online in the journal Radiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-harmless-condition-shown-brain-function.html Neuroscience Mon, 13 Aug 2012 03:36:09 EST news264047756 So far it has seemed an irreparable limitation of human perception that we strain to perceive things in the very rapid succession of, say, less than half a second. Psychologists call this deficit "attentional blink." We'll notice that first car spinning out in our path, but maybe not register the one immediately beyond it. It turns out, we can learn to do better after all. In a new study researchers now based at Brown University overcame the blink with just a little bit of training that was never been tried before. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-recognition-quickly.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:00:29 EST news261064473 When grabbing a coffee mug out of a cluttered cabinet or choosing a pen to quickly sign a document, what brain processes guide your choices? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-brain-visual-perception-unconsciously-affects.html Neuroscience Wed, 23 May 2012 10:04:53 EST news256986216 Bingo, a popular activity in nursing homes, senior centers and assisted-living facilities, has benefits that extend well beyond socializing. Researchers found high-contrast, large bingo cards boost thinking and playing skills for people with cognitive difficulties and visual perception problems produced by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-bingo-game-perception-deficits.html Neuroscience Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:31:36 EST news244812673 New research links 'silent strokes,' or small spots of dead brain cells, found in about one out of four older adults to memory loss in the elderly. The study is published in the January 3, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-clues-older-people-memory.html Neuroscience Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:53:37 EST news244310011 How we perceive motion is a significantly more complex process than previously thought, researchers at New York University's Center for Neural Science, Stanford University and the University of Washington have found. Their results, which appear in the journal Current Biology, show that the relationship between the brain and visual perception varies, depending on the type of motion we are viewing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-neuroscientists-greater-complexity-motion.html Neuroscience Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:34:51 EST news242310882 Skilled readers can recognize words at lightning fast speed when they read because the word has been placed in a visual dictionary of sorts, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) neuroscientists. The visual dictionary idea rebuts the theory that our brain "sounds out" words each time we see them. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-skilled-readers-brain-visual-dictionary.html Neuroscience Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:00:07 EST news240491075 Research conducted by Boston College neuroscientist Sean MacEvoy and colleague Russell Epstein of the University of Pennsylvania finds evidence of a new way of considering how the brain processes and recognizes a person's surroundings, according to a paper published in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-neuroimaging-brain-scenes.html Neuroscience Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:46:54 EST news235154804 Taking a trip down memory lane while you are driving could land you in a roadside ditch, new research indicates. Vanderbilt University psychologists have found that our visual perception can be contaminated by memories of what we have recently seen, impairing our ability to properly understand and act on what we are currently seeing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-memories-skew-visual-perception.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:32:15 EST news230375688 Strobe-like eyewear designed to train the vision of athletes may have positive effects in some cases, according to tests run by a team of Duke University psychologists who specialize in visual perception. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-strobe-eyewear-visual-abilities.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 19 May 2011 15:47:28 EST news225038825 When you think you see a face in the clouds or in the moon, you may wonder why it never seems to be upside down. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-brain-facial-recognition.html Neuroscience Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:12:11 EST news222361920