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MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 10
Lesson 2: Sight (vision)Feature detection and parallel processing
In this video, I review our ability to break down an image into its component "features" such as color, form, and motion. This is known as feature detection, and since the detection of various features happens simultaneously, or in parallel, it is referred to as parallel processing. By Ronald Sahyouni. Created by Ronald Sahyouni.
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- What would happen if the Magno or Parvo pathways stopped functioning properly? Would the other pathway have to take over it's job (using the Parvo for a moving object of Magno for a stationary)?(14 votes)
- It's not completely understood, and there's not much at all known about compensation between pathways or how it might occur. Visual pathways are an active area of research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. There's some good evidence that it might be possible to train or improve the magnocellular pathway to help with dyslexia, but there's a lot more work to be done in that area.(11 votes)
- So what makes the cones most sensitive to a specific colour (aka wavelength of light)?(7 votes)
- Inside both rods and cones are little disks that contain molecules of retinal bound to opsin proteins. Retinal molecules are cis-trans isomers that change shape when light is absorbed. This change in shape activates the bound opsin protein leading to detection of light. In cones, there are 3 different types of opsin proteins that absorb light at different wavelengths, correlating to red, green, and blue. The retinal/opsin complex is also referred to as a visual pigment (photopsin), which is what gives the cones their sensitivity to color.(23 votes)
- How does colourblindness affect cone distribution?(7 votes)
- If a person is missing a certain type of cone, or if the body makes a protein incorrectly (such as the photopsin in a particular cone type), then people will not see the color(s) associated with the missing or defective cones.(9 votes)
- At, how is it that we cannot process color in magno pathway? Could it be due to how fast and /or distant the object is? ( I just closed my eyes, picked a highlighter and opened my eyes as I threw it across the room and I could make out the color.) 6:35(3 votes)
- That because you are able to parallel process. You are using both pathways at the same time. If you Parvo pathways was not intact anymore you would not be able to make out the color while it is moving.(1 vote)
- Is there an order in witch the cones perceive the colors?(2 votes)
- No, not as such. Think of one beam of light that enters the eye through the pupil and hits the retina with its cones (and rods). The entering light wave contains enough energy to change the conformation of the photopsin molecule in the optic discs stacked in the cones.
The photopsin is a little different in the different types of the cones and they will react best to certain wave lengths (short-, medium- and long-) of the light beam. When this happens the brain gets the information from the cones in question at the same time. Then, depending on the ratios of different cone types involved, our brains allow us to interpret all of the colours .
I liked how they put it on this site at "How we differentiate wavelengths" http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/1C.html(4 votes)
- Atit says that the red light reflected of the rose enters our eye and falls on one of the red colored cones, we can see that the rose is red. What would happen if this ray of light falls on a blue or green cone, is this situation even possible? 1:26(2 votes)
- Different receptors are built to respond to different stimuli. The other cones would not respond to the light of a different frequency. Think about sound, people 'lose' their high range because these specific receptors are damaged and die. Think about the skin, some receptors respond to touch, different ones respond to heat. It is amazing.(3 votes)
- so is feature detection considered parallel processing or sequential? are they the same thing? How do they differ from serial processing?(2 votes)
- The difference between serial and parallel processing is how much is being done at once.
In parallel processing, more than one thing is being performed at the same time.
In serial processing only one thing is being performed at a time.
So, essentially it is believed that feature detection is parallel, because serial would be too slow. The reason that its thought to be too slow is how serial processing works in computers and A.I. Much more information can be processed when parallel processing is used as opposed to serial processing.(1 vote)
- At about, you mention that we cannot decipher the design of the rim of a wheel of a moving car because the parvo pathway has poor temporal resolution. I agree that this is true. However, then why can we not use the Magno Pathway to determine the design of the rim of the wheel since it has better temporal resolution? 4:20(2 votes)
- Because the magno pathway is not good at detecting fine detail, like the the rims of the wheels. (I think this is the right answer).(1 vote)
- By the end of this video series, are we expected to be able to answer all of the sight questions at the beginning? There are a lot of questions that I did not know...(2 votes)
- How much does the distribution of cone type (i.e. red, green, and blue) vary among mammalian species? Any quantitative examples?(2 votes)
- there is a great discussion in the questions and comments section over here
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/processing-the-environment/sight/v/photoreceptors-rods-cones(1 vote)
Video transcript
When you're looking
at an object, it's necessary to break it down
into its component features in order to make sense of
what you're looking at. This is known as
feature detection. There are many components that
make up feature detection. So let's go into these. When you're looking
at a rose, not only do you have to look and decide,
OK, what color am I looking at, you also have to figure out,
OK, what shape is the rose. So you have to get a
little bit of information about the form of the rose. You also need to get
information about motion. So is the rose moving? Am I throwing it across a room? What's going on? So whenever we
look at any object, we need to get
information about color, we need to get information
about the form of the object, and information about motion. So let's go into each one
of these different features. So our ability to
sense color actually arises from the presence
of cones within our retina. Cones are extremely
important, because they're sensitive to various
types of light. So we have three
major types of cones. There are red
comes, which make up 60% of the cones in your eye. There are green
cones, which make up 30% of the cones in your eye. And there are blue cones,
which make up about 10% of the cones in your eye. Now, we divide them into
red, green, and blue cones because the red
cones are extremely sensitive to red light. So if we're looking
at this rose, the petals are actually
reflecting red light. And so this is red
light enters your eye. And if it happens
to hit a red cone, then the cone will
activate, and it will fire an action potential. And this action potential
will reach your brain, and your brain will
recognize that you're looking at something
that is red. So this basically
happens regardless of what we're looking at. And this has come to be known
as the trichromatic theory of color vision. So what other
features do we need to take into consideration when
we're looking at this rose? So aside from breaking the rose
down into the different colors, we also need to
figure out, OK, what are the boundaries of the rose,
so the boundaries of the stem, the boundaries of the leaf,
the boundaries of the petals, from the background. And this is also
really important, because not only do we need
to distinguish the boundaries, but we also need
to figure out, OK, what shape are the leaves,
what shape are the petals. And these are all
very important things that your brain ultimately
is able to break down. So in order for us to figure out
what the form of an object is, we use a very
specialized pathway that exists in our brain, which
is known as the parvo pathway. So the parvo pathway is
responsible for figuring out what the shape of an object is. So another way to say this
is that the parvo pathway is really good at
spatial resolution. Let me write that down. So spatial resolution. And what spatial
resolution means is that it's really
good at figuring out what the boundaries
of an object are, what the little details
that make up the object are. So if something isn't
moving, such as when you're looking at a picture or when
you're looking at a rose, you're able to
break down and look at the little tiny details. So you're able to look at the
little veins that make up the rose leaf. You're able to see all the
little nuances of the rose. And that's because you're
using the parvo pathway, which has a really high level
of spatial resolution. One negative aspect
of the parvo pathway is that it has really
poor temporal resolution. And what I mean by this is that
temporal resolution is motion. So if a rose is in motion, if
I throw it across the room, I can't really use the parvo
pathway to track the rose. The parvo pathway is used
for stationary objects to acquire high levels
of detail of the object. But as soon as that
object starts moving, you start losing your ability
to identify tiny little details in the object. And you've probably
noticed this. So when you're in a car,
you're driving along, and there's a little Volkswagen
Beetle driving right by you, it's going pretty slow. You can acquire a good number
of details about the car, about the driver. But if you look
down at the wheels, the wheels are spinning
really, really quickly. And so if you try
and look at the rims and figure out what
design are the rims, it's really hard
to figure that out. That's because the
wheels are spinning so fast that it's really
difficult to acquire any type of detail
about the shape of the rims, about
what they look like, and things like that. And finally, the
parvo pathway also allows us to see
things in color. So the parvo pathway
not only allows us to acquire fine details
about what we're looking at, but it also allows
us to see in color. So if something is moving, we
can't use the parvo pathway. But what we do use
is the magno pathway. So we use the magno
pathway in our brain. And the magno
pathway is basically a set of specialized
cells-- just like the parvo pathway-- that
allow us to encode motion. So it allows to encode motion. And what that means
is that it has really high temporal resolution. So as we've said,
the parvo pathway has really low
temporal resolution. The magno pathway has
high temporal resolution, which means that if
something is in motion we're able to track it, we're
able to see an object moving. And in contrast to
the parvo pathway, the magno pathway has very
poor spatial resolution. So one way to
think about this is that if I was looking at this
rose using the parvo pathway, it's stationary, and I'm able
to see all these fine details in the petals, all these
fine details in the leaves. But if I was looking at the
rose using the magno pathway, the rose would actually
look a little bit like this. It would look very blurry. You would only be
able to see this kind of blurry aspect of the rose. And when you're looking at
the stem and the petals, you only see this very
blurry vision of the rose. This is one way to imagine
the difference between parvo and magno. If you're looking at this
rose using your parvo pathway, you see all these details. If you're looking at the same
rose using the magno pathway, it's very blurry. But the benefit of
the magno pathway is that if this rose were to
be moving, you can see it move. Whereas if you're using
the parvo pathway and a rose is moving, you wouldn't
even be able to see it at all. These are kind of the pros
and cons of the two pathways. And finally, the magno pathway
does not encode any color. So it just simply would
encode its motion. So our ability to detect
these three different features whenever we're looking
at an object all happens at the same exact time. So when I'm looking at
a rose, I don't first focus on the color
and then the form and then whether
or not it's moving. I get all this information
at the same exact time. And our ability to see
all three things whenever we're looking at something
at the same exact time is known as parallel processing.