How do our eyes “lock on” to objects, keeping them in constant focus despite movement, to the point where un-focusing takes conscious effort?

Question

How do our eyes “lock on” to objects, keeping them in constant focus despite movement, to the point where un-focusing takes conscious effort?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Two things:

1. Our eyes are (arguably) a part of our brains. They’re the only visible part of our brains. The retina is made of brain tissue, and the whole structure grows out of the brain during embryonic development.

I’m only saying this to highlight how close the mechanisms of the eyes (which receive external stimuli) is to the mechanisms of the brain (which process this stimuli)

2. Many different parts of the brain have the function of processing visual stimuli. The occipital lobe (back of ur head) is the most important part in this respect, whose main job is to processes visual info, and so it has many specialised functions related to it. Functions such as color differentiation and motion perception.

So if ur looking at something in motion, parts of ur occipital brain is lighting up, because ur eyes are noticing differences in light, and ur brain is processing such differences as “movement.”

This whole process – 1. eye receives stimuli, – 2. Sends visual info to the brain 3. The back of ur brain (occipital) processes this info – is automatic, just like differentiating red from blue is an automatic process.

Therefore, keeping track of something in motion is less difficult than trying to not keep track of the same thing, because the first is automatic, the latter is conscious.

Hope this helps, let me know if u have any further qs!