Why does our brain invert the image received from our eyes?

[Rasalhague]

First: There is an a absolute reference system for orientation, it's in the inner ear.

Second: It makes sense to flip the image because the image is upside down. Light comes into your eye at an angle that causes light coming from above you to hit the bottom side of the inside of your eye. It just makes more sense to view the world as it is.

Wouldn't it make more sense for the little man in your head to just stand on his head?

 

[antago]

I realize this thread was began several years ago, but let me go on to point out a few details.

There's not really any guarantee that anyone's perception of "up and down" are equally proportionate. Perhaps left-handed, right-handed individuals—or those who are earthbound while those who dwell in the clouds—are inverted with respect to each other.

I think a large portion of individuals perceive a heavier load with relation to the earth/physical form because the majority of their physical processes, sensations, and the Earth itself are in that direction. It is entirely possible to reprogram your perception to give precedence to "upwards"; the images you receive have no "up or down". All is in relation to either the sky or the earth, for most creatures, because of the nature of the human form.

However, if you think about it, really, your normal perception of adding precedence/importance can perceptually be inverted with continued practice. You have a full 360 degree range to play with—it's up to you to decide which angle your "heart"/spirit (or focus) resides. For most people they are in touch more with their physical heart, which happens to program much of their waking perceptions with relation to what language defines as "downward", or toward the earth/gravitational core.

 

[jamesraykenney]

That doesn't quite settle it though. The point I think is being made in the OP is that if the image were upside down, we'd just learn to jump when a projectile is up high and to duck when it's low, and our generalized model of up and down would be flipped from what it is now.

I'm curious whether a system like the brain will always eventually correlate information in a way that reduces computational stress, so even if we wired ourselves so that we saw the image upside down, it would eventually correct itself if plasticity allowed.

It does... I saw an experiment once where the subjects wall wore special glasses that inverted the image they saw. After a while(I do not remember how long, but I seem to remember that it was much less than a week, the subjects did not notice it any more.
When they took off the glasses, they had to go through the same process all over again, as they then saw the world upside down again even though they were not wearing the glasses anymore.

So I think the OP question does not really make sense. The brain does not 'flip' the image, it just associates directions however experience tells it they match up with it's visual perception.

It is the same as when you wear red/blue 3d glassed to watch an old 3d movie. When you get out, if you were the glasses out into the lobby, you do not notice the colors anymore, but when you take the glasses off, everything will look red through the eye that had the blue filter over it, and everything will look blue through the eye that had the red filter over it.
This can last for up to about 1/2 hour if I remember correctly.

 

[claytonh4]

Probably related: my young nephew has crossed eyes and according to the doctors, if not fixed relatively early, they will be permanently crossed and he will never develop depth perception. It is as if your brain is still writing its programming when you are an infant, but once you get to be a few years old, the programming is set.

Yes that's actually true. I spoke to a psychologist who said that up until around age 3, the brain is still, as you said, 'programming' itself- learning about the physical world around it and adapting to those laws. That's why you have to be careful with babies and stairs and so on because they haven't figured out depth perception, and thus why they are not afraid of heights. They don't realize that if they go over the edge, they're going to fall. It's in this stage that our perceptions conform to the physical world we occupy. For example, if a baby was raised in a giant fishbowl, the distorted view from the curvature of the glass would, in essence, become the brain's reality. It would learn that all objects travel in a curved path. By age 4, if the child was introduced to our physical world, he/she may never be able to fully adapt to the real world because the brain has already determined how physical dimensions work and what laws govern them and so it would essentially be hard wired to the physical construct of the fishbowl. (obviously this would be beyond unethical and immoral to actually do but it's just an example of how it was explained to me)

 

[DaveC426913]

I spoke to a psychologist who said that up until around age 3, the brain is still, as you said, 'programming' itself- learning about the physical world around it and adapting to those laws.

Actually, it turns out, it never stops.

Read The Brain That Changes Itself
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143113100/?tag=pfamazon01-20
It's about neuro-plasticity. Many documented accounts from the medical profession about adults able to reprogram their brains after suffering some debilitating diseases or trauma. We can all do it, all the time.

 

[zoobyshoe]

It does... I saw an experiment once where the subjects wall wore special glasses that inverted the image they saw. After a while(I do not remember how long, but I seem to remember that it was much less than a week, the subjects did not notice it any more.
When they took off the glasses, they had to go through the same process all over again, as they then saw the world upside down again even though they were not wearing the glasses anymore.

There was another thread that revolved around this famous experiment recently. Attempts to reproduce it have led to the suspicion that the image from the inverting glasses never seem right side up. The wearer just learns to find their way around in an upside down world:

http://wexler.free.fr/library/files...udy of adaptation to inverting spectacles.pdf

The world doesn't seem upside down when they take the glasses off, but there is a disorienting adjustment period because they've just spent a week learning to move in an upside down world. The notion the brain inverts the image in response to wearing the glasses for a while is very much called into question.