Blog Post 2- Binocular Cues

What is it?

In lecture eight of our psychology class we learned about binocular and monocular cues. Binocular cues are something I have really had to focus on over my last couple years of life. What these cues relate to is the way that both of your eyes work together to display an image as we see it and also, it is what helps us focus on something that is either close to us, or farther away. When the topic of how our eyes work together comes into play when dealing with seeing things in 3-D, it is the idea of retinal disparity that conveys this.  Since our eyes are located slightly apart from each other and depict a slightly different image, both eyes are needed to make a full picture. On the other hand, when we are talking about how our eyes work together to focus on objects that are close or farther away, the involves the idea of convergence. Both of these different binocular cues are vital in the way that our eyes need to work together in order for our vision to be the way it should be.

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My story Involving Binocular Cues.

A few years ago, I experienced a dangerously severe concussion while playing in a basketball game. It was to the point that they were checking me for brain bleed-age and I could not stand to look at something for more than a couple seconds before I would get a massive headache.  Fortunately, slowly but surely, as time went by I gained my full motor-skills back, although, there was one problem that was not getting better, my vision. My right eye was not moving fast enough to keep up with my left, which caused me to not be able to focus on anything and feel as if I did not have the correct depth perception. In order to correct these issues, I had to attend ocular therapy for several months until I finally gained my full set of vision skills back.

How does this relate?

My story of vision issues due to my concussion directly correlate to the binocular cues that we learned about in lecture eight. It makes much more sense to me now as to why I was having so much trouble focusing on certain objects. When you get a concussion and your brain is thrown around, it can really take a toll on a lot of major functions in your body, including your vision. Convergence and retinal disparity were the two biggest issues I was having when I was concussed, although fortunately, I bounced back. It is amazing that once you learn something it is so easy to tie it into an experience you had before, without even knowing it.

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Check out this website for more information:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC4901448
-Matt Silver

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