In psychology, visual perception is the ability to interpret information from visible light reaching the eyes. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision. The various physiological components involved in vision are referred to collectively as the visual system. The visual system in humans allows individuals to assimilate information from the environment. The act of seeing starts when the lens of the eye focuses an image of its surroundings onto a light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye, called the retina. The retina is actually part of the brain that is isolated to serve as a transducer for the conversion of patterns of light into neuronal signals. The lens of the eye focuses light on the photoreceptive cells of the retina, which detect the photons of light and respond by producing neural impulses. These signals are processed in a hierarchical fashion by different parts of the brain, from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus, to the primary and secondary visual cortex of the brain. The major problem in visual perception is that what people see is not simply a translation of retinal stimuli (i.e., the image on the retina). Thus people interested in perception have long struggled to explain what visual processing does to create what we actually see. This book presents leading edge research from around the globe on this field.

Contenu
Preface; Visual Perception and Motor Preparation of Manual Aiming: Behavioural Studies and Neural Correlates; Functional Role of the Extrageniculostriate System in Visual Perception; Challenges in Visual Perception Research in Strong Magnetic Fields; Multi-Dimensional Optimisation of Visual Content; Discrete and General Roles of Complementary Colours in Colour Vision; Colour Interaction -- Theory, Examples and Applications; Temporarily Blind in One Eye: Emotional Pictures Predominate in Binocular Rivalry; Role of Primary Visual Cortex in Oculomotor Behaviour; Analytical Approaches for the Study of Landscape Aesthetic Quality: An Underlying Structure; Visual Attention in Computer Graphics; Methodological and Conceptual Issues in the Science of Physical Attraction; Index.