Double Vision
Experiment provides new clues to the location of visual consciousness

Photo by Neil Brake

Randolph Blake, Centennial Professor of Psychology and senior fellow at the Kennedy Center, studies binocular vision using a mirrored device in his Wilson Hall laboratory.

by David F. Salisbury

A new test that measures what people see when viewing discordant images in the right and left eyes has produced important new clues about the location of some of the brain activity underlying visual consciousness.

The procedure, described in the Aug. 30 issue of the journal Nature, depends on a phenomenon called binocular rivalry first described in 1838 by Sir Charles Wheatstone. Using a device that he invented, Wheatstone discovered that when people are presented with dissimilar images in each eye, they report seeing first one image and then the other with the two images alternating unpredictably.

"Since this breakdown in binocular vision was discovered, it has been the subject of scientific interest because it involves the switching of visual consciousness without conscious control," said Randolph Blake, professor of psychology at Vanderbilt. He, Hugh R. Wilson, a mathematician from York University in Toronto, and Vanderbilt graduate student Sang-Hun Lee devised the new test.

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University, School of Engineering move up in latest 'U.S. News' rankings

Vanderbilt and the School of Engineering each advanced one spot in the latest rankings by U.S. News & Word Report.

The University is listed as 21st in the magazine's survey of the nation's best national universities, while the engineering school is ranked 43rd among undergraduate programs at schools offering Ph.D.s. Among schools considered "best values," Vanderbilt jumped from 46th place to a tie with five other institutions for 36th place.

"Rankings like this represent just one way to assess the quality of the University," said Chancellor Gordon Gee. "By that standard, Vanderbilt is doing very well. But the real measure comes from our faculty, students and alumni who make Vanderbilt an excellent, dynamic and constantly improving university."

Area students to benefit from high-tech partnership

Vanderbilt is teaming up with Lipscomb University and Dell Computers to raise the technology skills of public high school students in Davidson and Wilson counties.

In announcing details of the Dell Student Technology Leaders program in Nashville, Dell CEO Michael Dell said that trainers from Vanderbilt and Lipscomb will teach computer and Internet skills to teachers and students at 10 high schools.

The trainers from Vanderbilt are staff of the University's Virtual School, a continuing education program that has provided technology training for more than 30,000 Tennessee teachers. Both Vanderbilt's and Lipscomb's participants will provide program management, curriculum development, transportation of the Dell Student Technology Leaders lab to each participating school, student assessments and student volunteers for mentoring and training.

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