Brain Has an On/Off Vision Switch

"A molecular on-off switch that controls how a mouse brain responds to vision loss has been discovered by biologists," reports Science Digest. "When the switch is on, the loss of sight in one eye will be compensated by the other eye, but also by tactile input from the whiskers. When the switch is off, only the other eye will take over. These findings may help improve patient susceptibility to sensory prosthetics such as cochlear implants or bionic eyes." Read more.

Oscillating Brain Waves in Visual Cortex Help Sight

"Scientists measuring brain activity have found that in many regions, such as the sensory or motor cortex, activity sometimes oscillates at different frequencies, forming wave-like pattern," according to Medical News Today. "Despite the fact that such oscillations are frequently observed, and present in many brain regions, their functional role remains unclear. Research done by Dr. Christopher Pack, from McGill University, who looked at such waves occurring in a region of the visual cortex of the brain, suggests these oscillations could have a role in resetting the sensitivity of neurons after eye movements. Further results suggest these waves could also have a role in supporting the brain's representation of space. These results were presented at the 9th Annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, on May 25th 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia." Read more.

How We Focus on Color and Motion

“Despite the barrage of visual information the brain receives, it retains a remarkable ability to focus on important and relevant items. This fall, for example, NFL quarterbacks will be rewarded handsomely for how well they can focus their attention on color and motion - being able to quickly judge the jersey colors of teammates and opponents and where they're headed is a valuable skill. How the brain accomplishes this feat, however, has been poorly understood,” goes the Medical News Today post. “Now, University of Chicago scientists have identified a brain region that appears central to perceiving the combination of color and motion. They discovered a unique population of neurons that shift in sensitivity toward different colors and directions depending on what is being attended - the red jersey of a receiver headed toward an end zone, for example. The study, published in the journal Neuron, sheds light on a fundamental neurological process that is a key step in the biology of attention.” Read more.

Mapping How the Brain Organizes What We See

"Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that the brain is wired to put in order all the categories of objects and actions that we see. They have created the first interactive map of how the brain organizes these groupings," writes Medical News Today. "The result - achieved through computational models of brain imaging data collected while the subjects watched hours of movie clips - is what researchers call 'a continuous semantic space.' Some relationships between categories make sense (humans and animals share the same 'semantic neighborhood') while others (hallways and buckets) are less obvious. The researchers found that different people share a similar semantic layout." Read more.

See a video and read more at Neuro Gadget.

New Clues as to How Selective Attention Works

"Ever wonder how the human brain, which is constantly bombarded with millions of pieces of visual information, can filter out what's unimportant and focus on what's most useful?" That's the post from Science Digest. "The process is known as selective attention and scientists have long debated how it works. But now, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have discovered an important clue. Evidence from an animal study, published in the July 22 online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that the prefrontal cortex is involved in a previously unknown way." Read more.