- #1
Graeme M
- 325
- 31
I've often wondered at the "resolution" of the human visual system but it's not at all clear from what I've read whether this question even makes sense. As a sort of general position, many of the articles I've read suggest that the human eye, over the full field of vision, delivers around 400-600 megapixels of detail. The central foveal field is considerably less, perhaps no more than 10 megapixels. And only around 1 million fibres extend from retina to brain.
However, I don't think this is really what I'm thinking about. The visual system does a lot of processing along the way and at some point in the system an image becomes conscious. And of course, vision is more like a video stream than a static image.
What I am curious about is whether we know how detailed is a conscious image. While we might only discern 10 megapixels in terms of visual field at the retina's foveal region, and only 1 million fibres extend to the brain, I assume that the constant stream being generated produces a far more detailed conscious image. That is, the "resolution" of a conscious image must be greater than is physically derived at a singular moment at the retina.
If that is so (or even if it isn't I suppose) is it known how many neurons contribute to each pixel in a conscious image? I mean by this that as conscious images are formed over time, does a single neuron contribute to one pixel or many pixels? Do we know the ratio of neurons to pixels at the stages of image processing that most likely give rise to conscious experience of a scene?
Or is this not really a valid question because I don't understand enough about visual processing?
However, I don't think this is really what I'm thinking about. The visual system does a lot of processing along the way and at some point in the system an image becomes conscious. And of course, vision is more like a video stream than a static image.
What I am curious about is whether we know how detailed is a conscious image. While we might only discern 10 megapixels in terms of visual field at the retina's foveal region, and only 1 million fibres extend to the brain, I assume that the constant stream being generated produces a far more detailed conscious image. That is, the "resolution" of a conscious image must be greater than is physically derived at a singular moment at the retina.
If that is so (or even if it isn't I suppose) is it known how many neurons contribute to each pixel in a conscious image? I mean by this that as conscious images are formed over time, does a single neuron contribute to one pixel or many pixels? Do we know the ratio of neurons to pixels at the stages of image processing that most likely give rise to conscious experience of a scene?
Or is this not really a valid question because I don't understand enough about visual processing?
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