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Hidden View
22 December 2017

Hidden View

In a stunning phenomenon called ‘blindsight’, people who are blind in one eye can respond to visual stimuli they can’t consciously see at all. They might, for example, be able to grab an object to their side, only in the line of ‘sight’ of their blind eye. To investigate, researchers scanned the brains of healthy volunteers (left) and a patient with damage to one side of the brain (right). They found that the intact side compensates for, and communicates with, the injured. When the patient responded to stimuli they could actually see to one side, the corresponding half of the brain was active. However, when they responded to ‘hidden’ stimuli, both sides of the brain were involved, as were the fibres connecting them (the corpus callosum, blue and larger in the injured brain). Understanding these inbuilt compensation and repair mechanisms could help us encourage recovery after brain injury.

Written by Anthony Lewis

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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