Thursday, January 3, 2013

Science experiments in seeing wo perceiving, after brain damage

Brain lesion lecture, re damage that allows sensation wo perception.

People in experiment w damage on right side of brain see lights on right of screen all the time, but deny any lights on left side. But, when forced to answer about what they didn't see, answer correctly 90% of time!
"I saw no light, so I have no basis to guess, but if I'm forced to guess, I'll say on the left". Correct 90%+. They sense the left side lights wo being aware of the sensation, sensing wo perception. Consider implications for M-B S-N scale.

Many also act as if left side couldn't exist. One lady in hospital ate only food on left side of plate, denied she hadn't eaten whole thing.

Works in imagination, too. Imagine you walk out of White House, what's there? They describe everything on left only. Asked what if they are in square facing White House, what's there? They describe everything in new left only, and deny that anything is left out, even though just listed landmarks on opposite side.

Attention to working brain side extinguishes bad-side subconscious perception. Babies lose subconscious seeing over first 2 months. Second system is seeing is there throughout life, but suppressed as less efficient and redundant. Only comes out when primary self-aware system is damaged.

Creepy implications for humans' inability to remove perceptual filters, to see without bias and perspective and worldview and viewpoint. Can never remove bias, bias is part of physiology. This is overbroad, but how much? We can't see if we don't let ourslves.

No comments:

Post a Comment