Dimensions
168 x 241 x 26mm
The winner of The Wellcome Trust Prize.
In this book Michael Morgan explains how our brain interprets the images that the outside world forms in our eyes. Using a wealth of sources from over the centuries - philosophical writings, scientific thinking, experiments, passages from poems, novels and films - Morgan reveals the problems that the brain has to confront in manufacturing our perceptions.
The book includes optical drawings as well as some simple experiments that the reader can do to test the different components of one's sight and our own reactions to it.
There is a long way to go in neurological terms before we can understand how our brains actually see, or indeed the precise location of where this happens inside the grey matter. Morgan recognises that to achieve such an understanding may even necessitate the development of a new language that can better encompass the difficult scientific and logical interpretations that will have to be made.
This intelligent, engaging book provides a revelatory overview of what we know about how the brain works regarding visual space, giving a unique insight into one of our most vital yet least understood senses.
