See the movie

The following movie explores this theme and is available for planetarium domes and for home DVD.

Our brain gathers information from our senses in order to experience and understand the world around us. The various nerves located all throughout our body gather this information and send it to the brain through a network of neurons. This information is gathered from all over your body; the way an ice cube feels when you touch it with your hands, how the ocean sounds when you listen to it with your ears, how the sky looks when you see it with your eyes, and even what the ground feels like when your feet touch it. After receiving all of this information about the world around us, the brain processes it so that we have an understanding of that world.

The image to the left shows the light from a flame as it enters the eye through the lens in the iris. Passing through layer after layer after layer of neurons, the light is absorbed by the last neuron layer. All of these layers make up a neural network. The signal travels back through this network to the cell. Once the cell receives the light, that information is passed from one cell to the next, coding what we see. The last layer of the retina sends the information to the brain as signals, which travel out the tail of these cells down the axon. Once the signal enters the cell it quickly leaves along an axon to travel to the brain where the important information is sorted out. 

The McGurk Effect

The McGurk effect demonstrates how our senses work together so that what you hear is affected by what you see. To experience a demonstration of the McGurk effect, click here or click on the image to the left. You will need to be able to hear the demonstration for it to work properly, so make sure your computer speakers are on, or your headphones are plugged in.