Patients with Blindsight See Motion and Colors

"The visual information from eyes is sent into the brain unconsciously even if you are not aware. One example of unconscious seeing is a phenomenon called 'blindsight' [Subjects have no awareness, but their brains can see] in subjects with visual impairment, caused by damage to a part of the brain called the visual cortex," writes Medical News Today. "Although it is already reported that the patients with damage in the visual cortex, who were not aware of seeing, can walk and avoid obstacles, it was not proved whether this was really blindsight. In this new study, the international collaborative research team including Assistant Professor Masatoshi Yoshida and Professor Tadashi Isa from The National Institute for Physiological Sciences, The National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Japan and Professor Laurent Itti from the University of Southern California demonstrated that blindsight in monkeys is available not only under the specific conditions of the laboratory, but also in everyday environments. This research result appeared in Current Biology as an electronic version." Read more.