The secret of the blind spot in our vision

All of us have a blind spot- of one kind or another- towards another person or an activity. Having a blind spot means that you do not really understand the full meaning of that person or activity- particularly if a bad influence is involved. When you drive, your blind spot is behind you to the right or left- this is literally the dangerous zone in which you cannot see other drivers. There is also a blind spot in your field of vision. Everyone can find it with a simple test. Close your left eye, and, with your right eye, look at the first letter on the left of a line of text on this page. Move your index finger along the line towards the right focus on the letter and concentrate on your finger at the same time. Your fingertip will ‘disappear’ and then re emerges.

This phenomenon has been known for centuries, and many researchers have studied the blind spot. Essentially, the blind spot occurs where the optic nerve leaves the eye, and there are no light sensitive cells. At this point, we gave a gap in our field of vision.

 The interesting thing is not that this spot exists but rather the fact that we are not aware of it. Under normal circumstances we see with both our eyes. As they are always moving and looking at an object from different angles, they can compensate for the gap. But even if we only look with one eye, we do not notice the blind spot. The reason for this lies in the way brain processes information.

On the very first stop along our mental information highway, the corresponding area of our field of vision is simply filled in with something similar to the environment- when reading those lines it would be letters. Such blanks can also be found in our thinking processes. When we cannot think of a simple and quick solution to a question or problem, we generally say something like ‘just didn’t come to mind’