Salk neuroscientists propose how the visual system
automatically adapts to new environments
The irony of getting away to a remote place is you usually
have to fight traffic to get there. After hours of dodging dangerous drivers,
you finally arrive at that quiet mountain retreat, stare at the gentle waters
of a pristine lake, and congratulate your tired self on having "turned off
your brain."
"Actually, you've just given your brain a whole new
challenge," says Thomas D. Albright, director of the Vision Center
Laboratory at of the Salk Institute and an expert on how the visual system
works. "You may think you're resting, but your brain is automatically
assessing the spatio-temporal properties of this novel environment-what objects
are in it, are they moving, and if so, how fast are they moving?