“Fascination Happens
Deep Within The Brain.” by Team Fascinate.
The topic of neuroscience and the brain
is fascinating. As Professor Vesna stated, there are many components
to this subject from the mind to the brain to memory. Many figures of
the past contributed to neuroscience. For example, Ramon E. Cahall
was the founder of the neuron theory and was award the Nobel Prize on
the structure of the nervous system. Sigmund Freud had his Freudian
theory on psychoanalysis and Carla Gustav Jung had his Jungian theory
on the collective unconscious. The four lectures from Vesna and Cohen
provided a good history of neuroscience, but I would like to discuss
something thought provoking that relates to our perception and art.
Is your red the same as my red?
“How Do Humans
Perceive Color Defficiency.” by Mihai Andrei.
Color is everywhere and most people
don't think much about it; what we see is probably the same for
everyone. As stated in the video, “Colour is the eye of the
beholder”, as babies develop, they develop color vision. But as
they learn the words associated with what is seen, the words actually
have impact on how the brain processes them. Potentially language can
structure what is seen in the visual world. In their studies with the
Himba tribe of Namibia, the tribe have different words for certain
categories of color. For example, there are different words for
different shades of green and blue fits into one of the words. When
trying to distinguish between the shades of green, they were able to
pick out the difference instantly while Westerners like myself would
have taken a while. But for the shade of green and blue, they had
difficulty while Westerners have no problems.
Himba tribe of Namibia Color Test 1 - Shades of Green Easy
Himba tribe of Namibia Color Test 2 - Green + Blue Difficulty
In another video, “Is your red the
same as my red?”, describes more in detail about perception and how
that is translated in the brain. I can look at a red and you can look
at a green, but we can both call it red because that's how we were
raised to call it. How will we see how people learn about perception?
It's a difficult question. It's also similar to the perception of
beauty. Something I believe to be as beautiful can be ugly to someone
else. It's very interesting on how the brain processes these
information and what contributes to standards. It could possibly be a
societal aspect where people are trained to have a certain
perception. But there are deviations in this aspect so it's more
likely and easier to believe that our brains function differently and
define us and our conscious. That is why music and art touches us in
different ways, whether it may be the lyrics or the beat or the
abstraction.
“Is your red the same as my
red?” by Vsauce.
Yours truly,
Calvin Cam
Works Cited
Andrei, Mihai. “How Do Humans
Perceive Color Defficiency.” ZMEscience. 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Nov.
2013. <http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/color-defficiency/>.
“Colour is in the eye of the
beholder.” PBS. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=30670>.
Frauenfelder, Mark. “How language
affects color perception.” boingboing. 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Nov.
2013.
<http://boingboing.net/2011/08/12/how-language-affects-color-perception.html>.
Landau, Elizabeth. “What the brain
draws from art and neuroscience.” CNN. 15 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Nov.
2013. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/15/health/art-brain-mind/>.
Team Fascinate. “Fascination Happens
Deep Within The Brain.” 30 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.howtofascinate.com/blog/bid/187873/Fascination-Happens-Deep-Within-The-Brain>.
Vesna,
Victoria. “Neuroscience-pt2.mov.” Cole
UC online.
Youtube, 17 May. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX3MZo>.
Vsauce. “Is your red the same as my
red?” Youtube. 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08>.
I agree with your statement, "Something I believe to be as beautiful can be ugly to someone else." Everyone has a different perspective on life due to the way we think. Also, I like the Himba tribe's tests for distinguishing between different shades of green or distinguishing between blue and green. I never knew such tests exist and it is astonishing to see that the tribe can distinguish between the different shades of green. Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteI was told a story, i think its called the Plato theory, about how these people grew up in a cave and when they were let out they didn't know what to do because all they knew was in the cave(because they were brought up that way). I think thats what you are trying to get at that just because one society does something some way it doesn't mean the other way is wrong.
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