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Related Concept Videos

Blinding01:11

Blinding

Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.
Blind Procedures02:07

Blind Procedures

Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways01:22

Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways

At the molecular level, visual signals trigger transformations in photopigment molecules, resulting in changes in the photoreceptor cell's membrane potential. The photon's energy level is denoted by its wavelength, with each specific wavelength of visible light associated with a distinct color. The spectral range of visible light, classified as electromagnetic radiation, spans from 380 to 720 nm. Electromagnetic radiation wavelengths exceeding 720 nm fall under the infrared category, whereas...
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Glaucoma is an eye condition characterized by increased intraocular pressure that damages the retina and optic nerve, leading to irreversible blindness if left untreated. The human eye has various components, including the cornea, iris, pupil, lens, and optic nerve. Aqueous humor is secreted by the epithelium of the ciliary body in the posterior chamber and flows through the trabecular meshwork and canal of Schlemm, maintaining normal intraocular pressure. The trabecular meshwork and the canal...
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Hindsight Biases

Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you relate this to the phrase "Hindsight is 20/20" now?
Vision01:24

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Development of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the Blind
09:01

Development of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the Blind

Published on: March 27, 2013

The blindsight saga.

Alan Cowey1

  • 1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK. alan.cowey@psy.ox.ac.uk

Experimental Brain Research
|July 2, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Blindsight allows individuals with primary visual cortex damage to perceive visual stimuli without conscious awareness. Research in monkeys now directly informs understanding of human blindsight and its potential real-world applications.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Neuropsychology
  • Visual Neuroscience

Background:

  • Blindsight describes the detection of visual stimuli in patients with damage to the primary visual cortex (V1).
  • This phenomenon highlights implicit knowledge and challenges traditional views of visual perception.
  • It has generated significant interest and debate across multiple scientific disciplines.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To clarify the genuine qualities of blindsight by addressing potential experimental artifacts.
  • To establish the relevance of animal models, specifically monkeys, to human blindsight research.
  • To explore the potential functional utility of blindsight in everyday life.

Main Methods:

  • Reviewing existing literature on blindsight in human patients.
  • Analyzing studies of residual cerebral responses to visual stimuli in monkeys with V1 damage.
  • Investigating and differentiating true blindsight phenomena from potential experimental artifacts.

Main Results:

  • Blindsight demonstrates sophisticated visual processing independent of conscious awareness.
  • Monkey models provide a valuable framework for understanding human blindsight mechanisms.
  • Artifacts remain a concern, potentially obscuring the full extent of blindsight capabilities.

Conclusions:

  • Blindsight offers critical insights into visual processing without the primary visual cortex.
  • Further research is needed to resolve ambiguities caused by artifacts.
  • The functional significance and practical applications of blindsight remain an open question.