View Example A. Experiencing the Visual Field Location That Inputs on to the Blind Spot View either of the following videos: This video first appeared on a Web site called newscientist.com http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17511-the-blind-spot-and-the-vanishing-head-illusion.html , but it has since been uploaded to YouTube under the title “Vanishing Head Illusion.” Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS3L4t1RCDM Now, explain how this disappearing act is possible. View Example B. Facial Processing It’s complicated. It has been shown that there is a specific brain area responsible for processing faces; however, this area is not responsible for processing faces in any orientation other than upright. The tectopulvinar pathway allows us to be able to identify a face as a face even when it is inverted. (This is also true of other inverted objects.) Furthermore, it has been found that we are particularly sensitive to the configuration of upright faces but not of faces that are inverted. A disrupted configuration in an upright face would be startling to us, but this is not the case with an inverted face. The Thatcher illusion is a classic example of this (named for the first subject of the illusion—former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher). View a demonstration of this illusion at http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/fcs-thompsonThatcher/index.html View Example C. Face Blindness In the following video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Zjq1M75gc researchers describe a patient with damage to the area of the brain that processes faces and results in face blindness (or prosopagnosia). Studying individuals with prosopagnosia has helped researchers understand how facial recognition is processed in the brain. Discussion Visual Illusions Now, find examples of visual illusions (by doing an Internet search) that are not addressed in the textbook. Provide the web address, describe the illusion, and then explain the neural basis for that type of illusion. Please do not make early or late postings to the discussion forum. Postings made before or after the discussion dates will not be considered in the grade.