An ability that our brains have whether we are a child that is constructing legos or an adult pickpocket that is reaching out for a wallet is the ability to identify new objects and understand the different ways that they can be manipulated. In the past scientists use to believe that our brains can identify and manipulate objects by interpreting visual and textural cues in a methodical way which might include an object’s edges or boundaries. But a new study is beginning to challenge that understanding. It states that the human brain only needs a little information as well as some previous experience in order to be able to calculate a mental representation of an object that is complete. Using these results we can be able to understand the mental mathematics that the brain undergoes when it helps us to know how an object looks like by simply touching the object, or knowing the way that an object will feel by simply looking at it. The research was conducted by researchers at Columbia University, the University of Cambridge and also from the Central European University who had a coordinated study that found out the natural power that the brain has to quickly learn and make generalizations. The study was published in the journal eLife.
Key Takeaways:
- Our eyes have the remarkable ability to be able to spot new objects and see the differences between them whether one is a child or an adult.
- Scientists have long believed that our ability to differentiate between objects lie in the brain’s interpretation of visual and textural cues of the objects.
- The brain has a natural power to quickly learn about new objects and differentiate between them based on its stored memory and mental representations.
“Nearly 40 years ago, scientists trying to understand how we identify individual objects proposed that the edges or boundaries of each item allow us to distinguish one object from the next.”
Read more: https://neurosciencenews.com/math-brain-objects-14110/