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Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions
Oliver Sacks
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Description for Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions
Paperback. A neuroscientist tells the remarkable story of how she rewired her own brain--and came to see the world anew Num Pages: 272 pages, 30 b/w illustrations. BIC Classification: BM; PDZ. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 209 x 141 x 19. Weight in Grams: 286. A Scientist's Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions. 256 pages, 30 b/w illustrations. When neuroscientist Susan Barry was fifty years old, she took a trip to Manhattan. She saw the city in an astonishingly new way. With each glance, she experienced the deliriously novel sense of immersion in a three dimensional world. Giving an account of the brain's capacity for change, this title describes Barry's remarkable journey. Cateogry: (G) General (US: Trade). BIC Classification: BM; PDZ. Dimension: 209 x 141 x 19. Weight: 286.
When neuroscientist Susan Barry was fifty years old, she took an unforgettable trip to Manhattan. As she emerged from the dim light of the subway into the sunshine, she saw a view of the city that she had witnessed many times in the past but now saw in an astonishingly new way. Skyscrapers on street corners appeared to loom out toward her like the bows of giant ships. Tree branches projected upward and outward, enclosing and commanding palpable volumes of space. Leaves created intricate mosaics in 3D. With each glance, she experienced the deliriously novel sense of immersion in a three dimensional world. Barry had been cross-eyed and stereoblind since early infancy. After half a century of perceiving her surroundings as flat and compressed, on that day she was seeing Manhattan in stereo depth for first time in her life. As a neuroscientist, she understood just how extraordinary this transformation was, not only for herself but for the scientific understanding of the human brain. Scientists have long believed that the brain is malleable only during a"critical period” in early childhood. According to this theory, Barry's brain had organized itself when she was a baby to avoid double vision-and there was no way to rewire it as an adult. But Barry found an optometrist who prescribed a little-known program of vision therapy after intensive training, Barry was ultimately able to accomplish what other scientists and even she herself had once considered impossible. A revelatory account of the brain's capacity for change, Fixing My Gaze describes Barry's remarkable journey and celebrates the joyous pleasure of our senses.
Product Details
Publisher
Basic Books
Number of pages
256
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2010
Condition
New
Number of Pages
272
Place of Publication
, United States
ISBN
9780465020737
SKU
V9780465020737
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-10
About Oliver Sacks
Susan R. Barry is a professor of neurobiology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mount Holyoke College. She speaks regularly to scientists, eye doctors, and educators on the topic of neuronal plasticity. She has been featured on NPR and in a New Yorker article by renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks entitled"Stereo Sue.” She and her husband have two grown children and live in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
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