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Hypertension News
Article Date: 09 Sep 2006 - 8:00am (PDT)
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Having two eyes comes in handy when gauging
distances. Because each eye receives a slightly
different image of an object on the retina, the
disparity allows us to compute the distance to the
object, as well as its position relative to nearby
objects. The conventional view is that depth
perception has little to do with the actual
appearance of an object, but work by Farell suggests
otherwise. Subjects viewed a series of visual
stimuli on a computer screen consisting of a central
circular patch and a surrounding ring and judged
whether the central element was closer to or farther
from the surrounding one. When the patterns on the
two elements were in the same orientation, the
observer could judge relative depth more accurately
than when orientations differed. Thus, in the "real
world," the orientation of textures on the surfaces
of objects can affect our perception of their
relative depth.
Bart Farell
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News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
Contact: Sara Harris
Society for Neuroscience
