The Brain and Fake Glasses

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LennonNZ

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Topic # 150088 10-Jul-2014 20:15

I normally wear glasses and today I tried on some glasses with no lenses in them.

Strangely enough things where quiet out of Focus like I had glasses on which where for long sighted people (and I'm short sighted). As my brain was used to wearing correct glasses it decided to compensate and make things look really bad.

I guess if I waited long enough my brain would get used to them having no lenses.. I just thought it was strange what the brain does.

gzt

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Reply # 1086709 10-Jul-2014 20:24

I know people who swear by regular use of pinhole glasses. My vision is fine but I found them a useful to have when recovering eyes from long periods of screen use. I suspect there are more than one kind. I've only ever used cheap ones personally, badly drilled holes and a less than matt surface on the inside, but still I found them beneficial as an exercise.

Fred99

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Reply # 1087622 12-Jul-2014 09:29

It's surely amazing how the brain adapts to sensory input. The experiment with upside down glasses (I can remember seeing this in a TV documentary back in the '70s).
Hearing is similar - cochlear implants initially produce unintelligible squawking, but the brain adapts to these signals and it becomes like "normal" hearing. Similarly, my son has a BAHA for unilateral hearing loss. Because this has microphones mounted on the sound processor plugged into his skull just below the hairline, initially the sound of hair brushing against the microphone etc is an annoyance. After a few weeks using the device, the brain learns to ignore those sounds.