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+--- Thread: Why does our brain correct the lens image of our eyes from being upside down? (/thread-21670.html)
Why does our brain correct the lens image of our eyes from being upside down? - Magical Realist - Oct 24, 2026
There's no objective truth about the world being either way. It's just a matter of perspective. Gravity would still make us fall only we'd fall up instead of down. And for a species of 8 billion all standing on a round planet, we can't all be right about standing upright. So what was so survivally advantageous about seeing the world as right side up?
RE: Why does our brain correct the lens image of our eyes from being upside down? - C C - Oct 26, 2026
(Oct 24, 2026 11:21 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [...] So what was so survivally advantageous about seeing the world as right side up?
Roger Wolcott Sperry inverted the eyes of frogs. According to him, "the stupid frogs never learned" or failed to adapt to the reversed vision. In contrast to humans, who do adapt over time.
But the eyes of frogs are on the sides of their head. They can see what's behind them to some extent (not just forward). Perhaps that kind of optical orientation may be more dependent on the world appearing upright.
So the brain processing visual information in a "flipped" manner might have evolved to aid the survival of early, primitive animals. And that characteristic was simply retained by the rest of vertebrate life (including later complex brains) over the course of hundreds of millions of years.