Mark A. Changizi

Primates evolved binocular vision so that they could see in three dimensions, critical as they jumped from branch to branch. Higher primates developed colour vision to better hunt out ripe fruit. Optical illusions succeed because they exploit the limitations of our visual processing. Wrong! All of these beliefs are false, as groundbreaking research by evolutionary scientist and neurobiologist Mark Changizi now reveals.

How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew about Human Vision

The Vision Revolution

"The scientific consensus is that our ability to understand human speech has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. After all, there are whole portions of the brain devoted to human speech. We learn to understand speech before we can even walk, and can seamlessly absorb enormous amounts of information simply by hearing it. Surely we evolved this capability over thousands of generations.  Or did we? Portions of the human brain are also devoted to reading. Children learn to read at a very young age and can seamlessly absorb information even more quickly through reading than through hearing. We know that we didn't evolve to read because reading is only a few thousand years old.  In "Harnessed," cognitive scientist Mark Changizi demonstrates that human speech has been very specifically designed" to harness the sounds of nature, sounds we've evolved over millions of years to readily understand. Long before humans evolved, mammals have learned to interpret the sounds of nature to understand both threats and opportunities. Our speech--regardless of language--is very clearly based on the sounds of nature.  Even more fascinating, Changizi shows that music itself is based on natural sounds. Music--seemingly one of the most human of inventions--is literally built on sounds and patterns of sound that have existed since the beginning of time"--

how language and music mimicked nature and transformed ape to man

Harnessed

In The Brain from 25,000 Feet, Mark A. Changizi defends a non-reductionist philosophy and applies it to a variety of problems in the brain sciences. Some of the key questions answered are as follows. Why do we see visual illusions, and why are illusions inevitable for any finite-speed vision machine? Why aren't brains universal learning machines, and what does the riddle of induction and its solution have to do with human learning and innateness? The author tackles such questions as why the brain is folded, and why animals have as many limbs as they do, explaining how these relate to principles of network optimality. He describes how most natural language words are vague and then goes on to explain the connection to the ultimate computational limits on machines. There is also a fascinating discussion of how animals accommodate greater behavioral complexity. This book is a must-read for researchers interested in taking a high-level, non-mechanistic approach to answering age-old fundamental questions in the brain sciences.

High Level Explorations of Brain Complexity, Perception, Induction and Vagueness

The Brain from 25,000 Feet

Mark Vonnegut

A radically new perspective on human vision is emerging. Groundbreaking research by evolutionary scientist and neurobiologist Mark Changizi is driving a revolution in our understanding of human vision. In asking why we see the way we do, Changizi overturns existing beliefs and provides new answers to age-old questions. Why do our eyes face forward? While binocular vision was helpful to our primate ancestors, its importance for 3-D vision is exaggerated. Squirrels jump from branch to branch just fine with sideways-facing eyes and many athletes, including Hockey Hall of Famer Frank McGee, play with only one eye. HINT: We evolved in a highly leafy environment. Why do we see in color, when most other mammals do not? Its not because it helped our ancestors find ripe fruit. Our color vision has evolved to be extremely sensitive to specific sets of color changes. HINT: Primates with color vision, like us, are the only ones who have areas of bare skin. Why do we see optical illusions? Its not the result of glitches in our visual system. Optical illusions can be traced back to the same specific property of vision. HINT: We are able to catch a ball coming at us much more effectively than we should given the speed at which our brains process visual input. Why do we absorb information so readily by reading? Its not because weve evolved to read; evolutionarily, reading and writing are recent developments. HINT: Language is designed to exploit skills weve refined over tens of millions of years. In The Vision Revolution, Changizi details the conclusions of his innovative fieldwork and their mind-blowing implications for our understanding not just of human vision, but of the way we interact with the world in which we live.

Mark A. Changizi

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