WHAT'S YOUR BLIND SPOT? EVERY MAMMAL HAS ONE.

   Science and Psychology often merge. In order to understand perception, the psychologist looks to the sciences of the senses. For this one, I'm looking at the eye. Not a shock considering it's been the focus  (haha) of my life the past couple of weeks. 

   I used to have fun with this lesson. I'll put in two of the pictures I found in my text books, but you may need to find some on line to find the proper distance, so that it works.

  A blind spot is known as a Scotoma.  The WIKI definition is below.  I'll sum it up and if you want the whole skinny, you can read more.

   Basically, each of us have a dead or empty spot in our eye where there are no photoreceptor cells. If you do one of the tests, you will indeed see that there is a spot where you can't see out of.  You have a hole in your vision field and you can only "see" it if you do one of these type of tests. They work. It's eerie. You move the page back and forth and suddenly, a big piece of what you're looking at goes missing. 

the pic I edited is one I couldn't find. you get the idea.

A scotoma (Greek σκότος/skótos, darkness; plural: scotomas or scotomata) is an area of partial alteration in the field of vision consisting of a partially diminished or entirely degenerated visual acuity that is surrounded by a field of normal – or relatively well-preserved – vision.

Every normal mammal eye has a scotoma in its field of vision, usually termed its blind spot.  It is only a problem when you develop more than one and it interferes with your vision.

   This is a location with no photoreceptor cells, where the retinal ganglion cell axons that compose the optic nerve exit the retina. This location is called the optic disc. There is no direct conscious awareness of visual scotomas. They are simply regions of reduced information within the visual field. Rather than recognizing an incomplete image, patients with scotomas report that things "disappear" on them.^[1]
The presence of the blind spot scotoma can be demonstrated subjectively by covering one eye, carefully holding fixation with the open eye, and placing an object (such as one's thumb) in the lateral and horizontal visual field, about 15 degrees from fixation (see the blind spot article). The size of the monocular scotoma is 5×7 degrees of visual angle. Wiki.

not sure if something got cut off.

  In any event, what is so truly cool about this spot is ----- we don't notice it.
Our brain takes over and fills in what it expects or wants to be there.

  How cool is that?  You're looking at a picture of your favorite, well, you fill in the blank. What you are actually seeing, is a picture with a hole in it. Like maybe the face is missing an eyeball. Or the woman's body is missing a breast.

  Your brain is so trained to see what should be there, that you actually believe that it is really there. Of course, we could probably say that about lots of things, which is why I thought this might be of interest.

   HYPOSTHESIS:
  The brain is so well trained at seeing what you expect or desire, that it can trick you into seeing what is not actually there. Therefore, your expectation is more powerful than the reality.


CAN I THINK OF SOME EXAMPLES?

  I'll start with a very common phenomenon.  After someone you know has died, you walk around and you often think you are seeing the person who has passed.
   I don't want to get into an argument with people who will say that this is possible.(actually seeing the "ghost" of who passed).  I believe it too. Only, not on a large scale. Like every day several times a day for several weeks, you keep "seeing" the person but upon closer inspection, you know it isn't them.

  It's what we want or expect to be there.  It's natural after a loss.  But can we do it with other things as well?


  Personally I think we can and do all the time. Not at all consciously. 

 Oh. Here's another one. You think your spouse is angry at you. You aren't sure why, but you're sure you're right. (we are always sure we're right).  So, when you see your spouse, you notice a tone in the voice, a look in the eye, a tightness around the mouth.  You respond in a way that you would (defensively)  if your spouse were angry. This may trigger anger that wasn't there. It does however, reinforce your belief that you were right.  You could of course be projecting your own anger onto your spouse and not wanting to be the one to start the argument, put it on him/her.

  There are lots of situations people do this in. Not projection. Looking for something in the other person.
   I just thought of adolescents. I don't know if they still do what I did, but if they do, you remember how that goes.
  You want to know if he/she likes you. You sit with your friend for hours, dissecting every move, every word, every expression the person said and did in a particular exchange.  It's kind of like reading tea leaves. You pick out the information that supports your theory. Oh. Is that what I'm doing now? You tell me. I'm not impartial.  

   OBSERVATION:

  Like the old adage, "Love is blind", in many cases, so are we. It can be a helpful defense in situations where you learn how to "overlook" faults in family and friends. In that case, you usually are aware of your actions which is fine. We all have flaws and faults and if we expect our loved ones not to have them we will be sorely disappointed and we will become quite disagreeable.

  Then there are the faults we really don't see. Someone conning us. We want so much to believe what that person is selling us, that, well, we do.

   We also con ourselves. It's so much more fun being blind to our own shit. If we don't see it, we don't have to take responsibility for it and then can go along our merry way, blaming anyone, anything, everyone and everything but ourselves. It may work, but you may find yourself to be rather unhappy, and if not alone, at least in rather contentious relationships. If that's what you're used to, that's what you'll find.


   SO WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
  Every mammal has a scotoma. What's my blind spot that I fill in with my desires rather than the reality? Is it a positive or a negative?
  He loves me. He loves me not.

  It's okay to have a blind spot as long as it isn't too big and doesn't interfere with reality.  Although I could argue that we all create our reality. I'll save that one for another post.



ARE WE CLEAR?