E-Mail
IMAGE: A new study from researchers at the Allen Institute collected and analyzed the largest single dataset of neurons' electrical activity to glean principles of how we perceive the visual world...
view more
Credit: Allen Institute
A new study from researchers at the Allen Institute collected and analyzed the largest single dataset of neurons' electrical activity to glean principles of how we perceive the visual world around us. The study, published Wednesday in the journal
Nature, captures the hundreds of split-second electrical signals that fire when an animal is interpreting what it sees.
Your brain processes the world around you nearly instantaneously, but there are numerous lightning-fast steps between light hitting your retinas and the point at which you become aware of what's in front of you. Humans have three dozen different brain areas responsible for understanding the visual world, and scientists still don't know many of the details of how that process works.