Something new I learned today.

When you see something, each of the axons that make up your optic nerve carry a portion of the image into your visual cortex. This much you know. However, scientists have done studies in which they inserted a probe into the subjects visual cortex and mapped which cells activated when a particular image was seen.

The interesting thing is that in the lower levels of the visual cortex hierarchy, V1 for those of you keeping score at home, a bunch of cells each corresponding to each individual axon in the optic nerve fire off briefly. And these cells change according to the image. Which indicates that each cell in this lower portion of the hierarchy is only concerned with a tiny, little, itty-bitty portion of what you see (sorta like a single pixel on your monitor). As opposed to objects that you might see in your field of vision. Neat.

In other news, I'm currently watching last nights episode of Desperate Housewives and I am still trying to quit smoking. Oh yeah, and Mario, I'm really sorry for being a flake this weekend.

Out.