Hoi Chung Leung: Reflection

Dr. Leung’s reflection was quite an interesting presentation. Her presentation was about “seeing” from the brain. She began the presentation of the quote “Things are not that they seem; nor are they otherwise” from a Lankavatara Sutra. I believe this quote means how there is a distinction between reality and appearance. The way our brain process images in a unique way and Hoi Chung Leung gives a detail explanation on how. She explains the science on how the photoreceptors function in our brains along with ganglion cells. We learn how the retina contain cells. The retina is the back part of the eye that contains the cells that respond to light. These specialized cells are called photoreceptors. Ganglion cells are cells that send out neural signals in the form of action potentials. After this brief explanation, we learn about how vision differ among species. Many humans are fortunate enough to process many colors while comparing to cats. Cats are red/green colorblind and perceive landscapes as blues and yellows. I never knew how seabirds have photoreceptors that have yellow oil droplets which help polarize light and improve distance vision, especially hazy conditions. Another interesting fact I learned was Incoming light is distorted by layers of cells before reaching the photoreceptors, and there is a blind spot, there are no receptors. My favorite part of the presentation was the part where we see the monkey business video. I have seen a video like this before but instead of a monkey it was bear. This video is all about inattentional blindness and it was really cool video. Overall, this presentation was very informative and I appreciate Dr. Leung for taking the time to give it.