We see things upside down and our eyes flip the images...

[Box_o_Dynamite]

So if everything we are seeing is flipped, are we really upside down on this earth? Are WE upside down? Imagine stepping outside, are we hanging from the natural ceiling that is the earth? When we see an image upside down, is that how it really looks?

[burnedfish]

What's more, images in our left field of vision are processed by the right hemisphere, and vice versa for the left. Hold your hand over your left eye, and all vision you see via your right eye is processed by the left side of your brain.

[Box_o_Dynamite]

What's more, images in our left field of vision are processed by the right hemisphere, and vice versa for the left. Hold your hand over your left eye, and all vision you see via your right eye is processed by the left side of your brain.

Thats right. I work rehabilitating patients after strokes and when the right side of the brain is damaged, their physically affected side is the left. Opposite from which side the injury is in the brain. Also there is an interesting effect called unilateral (left or right) neglect where the patient can't see much on the affected side. You ask them to touch the center of a horizontal line and they will be very much off center but in their perspective thats the center of the line. The left/right neglect is much more than just the visual field. Ask the patient to draw a clock or a person and they will only draw one half of the picture.

[moosecakes4all]

Yep! In fact, someone did a study a long time ago where they wore glasses that inverted their vision (so that the brain interpretted it as upsidedown) and their brain adapted to it and reflipped the image after some time!

[rampagefc77]

Depends on what you are talking about. Sensory and motor pathways decussate (cross) at varying levels (some immediately as they enter the spinal cord, others in the medulla, etc. So depending on the location of the lesion, you may lose sensory/motor on the same side as the lesion, or the opposite.

As for vision, the lateral part of your retina observes the medial part of your visual field, and it does not cross into the other brain hemisphere, while the medial part of your retina (which views the lateral part of your visual field) does cross at the optic chiasm. So depending on the location of the lesion, you may lose ipsilateral/contralateral or a mixture of both fields of vision.

Interesting stuff.

[brahdawg]

The brain just flip the image to its correct position. If you look at a tree, the tree will be projected to the back of your eye as upside down then your brain will make the necessary adjustments so you 'see it' as right side up.

[rampagefc77]

The brain is a ridiculous organ overall. Just think that your body can literally take physical stimuli-- rays of light-- and convert it into a chemical message which is then interpretted in a way that allows us to function. The same can be said for all of our senses. Its not like a smell actually "exists"-- its just that the molecule is soluble, can hit a receptor, set off a electrochemical signal, and be interpretted by the brain as pleasant/unpleasant based on evolutionary need more than likely.

[moosecakes4all]

I was just reading about the biochemistry of vision in my organic lab book. Essentially the main step involves the high energy of a quantum of visible light to catalyze the breaking of a pi bond in the molecule 11-cis-retinal to its trans isomer, 11-trans-retinal.
Insane to think that without that one double bond vision would not be possible, at least not how we know it!

[burnedfish]

I think it is misrepresentative to say "the brain flips the image right side up" because it implies the image remains intact as the information travels to the brain. Repeatedly I hear the layperson's conseption that the images we see are displayed on a metaphorical screen in the brain and it is the brain that flips the image so we see the world right side up. This is simply not the case. Images splash against our retina, initiating a cascade of neural electro-chemical pulses which travel to the brain in no way resembling the original image that hit the retina. It is a cacophony of neural impulses which are interpreted by the brain and perceived at visual external stimuli. This is why I think to say "the brain flips the image" is misleading and perpetuating bad information.

[YuMadThough]

The brain just flip the image to its correct position. If you look at a tree, the tree will be projected to the back of your eye as upside down then your brain will make the necessary adjustments so you 'see it' as right side up.

This, the world isn't necessarily upside down its just the lense within the eye refracts the light and projects it as upside onto the retina.. the brain just then processes it to the correct way up.

http://i25.tinypic.com/20g1irm.jpg

[rhiannonjane22]

So if everything we are seeing is flipped, are we really upside down on this earth? Are WE upside down? Imagine stepping outside, are we hanging from the natural ceiling that is the earth? When we see an image upside down, is that how it really looks?

yes, ofcourse you're right, took you a while to realise hey buddy :)

[-StevenAkaProek]

light refraction brah due to lens. Put a spoon in a glass cup filled with water and view it from the outside to see how it refracts

nothing is upside down lol

[boast]

whats more crazy is how the blood vessels are actually blocking our vision but we ignore it.

L_W-IXqoxHA

[maggiesfarm]

I think it is misrepresentative to say "the brain flips the image right side up" because it implies the image remains intact as the information travels to the brain. Repeatedly I hear the layperson's conseption that the images we see are displayed on a metaphorical screen in the brain and it is the brain that flips the image so we see the world right side up. This is simply not the case. Images splash against our retina, initiating a cascade of neural electro-chemical pulses which travel to the brain in no way resembling the original image that hit the retina. It is a cacophony of neural impulses which are interpreted by the brain and perceived at visual external stimuli. This is why I think to say "the brain flips the image" is misleading and perpetuating bad information.

^that

The "image" that actually falls on the retina is a blurry, distorted mess. The eye is a camera made of meat and it works about as well as you'd expect. The image that we experience is stitched together by the brain using thousands (?) of eye movements and has gaps filled by memories and expectations.

Paul Bach y Rita made a device that stimulated the tongue in ways that corresponded to data coming in from a head-mounted camera, and after a while blind patients were able to see using it. Brains are sweet.