The Eyes Have It

Presented By:

Emily Klonoski

Lauren Hosko

The Dominant Eye

Just like you have a dominant hand, you also have a dominant eye. But just because you are right-handed doesn't mean that your right eye is your dominant eye. Your dominant eye directly focuses on the object whereas your other eye sees the object from a different angle.

Discover Your Dominant Eye:

1.) Select an object that is a few feet away from you.

2.) Stare at the object and then point to the object using your index finger.

3.) When your eyes are focused on the object and not on your finger, you will see two blurry fingers in your line of sight.

4.)  Now, close one eye and then close the other eye.

You will notice that with one of your eyes closed, your index finger will point exactly at the object, however, when the other eye is closed, your finger will point at an area slightly shifted to the side of the object. The eye with which you see your index finger pointing exactly at the object is your "Dominant Eye."

It turns out that basketball players who have "crossed hand-eye dominance" are better at shooting free throws.  This is because when they are holding the ball at face level before the shot, their dominant eye will be partially covered if they are right hand dominant and right eye dominant, for example. But if they are right hand dominant and left eye dominant, their nondominant eye would be the partially covered one. This gives them a better view of the basket and possibly a better shot!

What  about baseball players? Since a right-handed batter stands on the left side of the plate, it would most likely be beneficial if he was left eye dominant. This would give him a better view of the pitcher along with the release of the ball.

Blind Spot

When we see an image in front of us, the image is taken in by our eyes and lands on a bed of photoreceptors.  Photoreceptors are neurons that are excited by light. In one spot of this collection of nerves, a hole exists which is referred to as the optic nerve head. Through this opening, collections of nerves pass through and form the optic nerve. This is how information gets back to our brain. But since a hole exists where the nerves pass through, no photoreceptors exist, which means that nothing is seen at this point. This is called our blind spot, and each eye has one. An image that falls in the region of our blind spot will not be seen.

From http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/Bj.html

Demonstration:

    Materials needed:

         1.) A cardboard box with a hole cut in the center of the bottom of the box

         2.) 2 strings of Christmas lights

         3.) Sheer ribbon

         4.) A sewing hoop

The lights should be placed into the box and they represent the bed of photoreceptors. The hole in the bottom of the box represents the small opening in the sheet of photoreceptors where the optic nerve emerges. The ribbon will be cut into strips about a yard long each and attached to the hoop so that the entire hoop is surrounded. The hoop represents an eye, and the pieces of ribbon represent collections of nerves.  The ribbon then will be gathered together by our hands representing the optic nerve. It will be pulled through the lights and out through the hole by our hands so that the lights part, representing the action of the photoreceptors and the optic nerve.

To find your blind spot:

1.) Close your right eye.

2.) Hold the image (or place your head from the computer monitor) about 20 inches away.

3.)With your left eye, look at the +.

4.)Slowly bring the image (or move your head) closer while looking at the +.

At a certain distance, the dot will disappear from sight...this is when the dot falls on the blind spot of your retina. Reverse the process. Close your left eye and look at the dot with your right eye. Move the image slowly closer to you and the + should disappear.