Staring into Space
July 21, 2009

A listener asks: What are your eyes and brain doing when you stare into space?

Transcript

BOB HIRSHON (host):
How your mind drifts. I'm Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Listener Melanie Smolter of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called us with this Why is It? question:

MELANIE SMOLTER: What exactly are your eyes and brain doing when you stare into space?

HIRSHON:
We turned to Caltech neuroscientist Christof Koch. He says when we stare into space, we look, but do not see.

CHRISTOF KOCH (Caltech):
So although I'm looking at things and the retina's going to be activated by the things that it's looking at, my brain doesn't perceive it, because I don't attend to it, and what attention does, it amplify signals, and so these signals don't really propagate up into the brain proper because I'm not attending to them even though I'm looking at them.

HIRSHON:
He says this often happens when a thought or daydream directs our attention away from the visual image. This is usually harmless, but a lack of conscious focus on what we are looking at can sometimes lead to accidents. I'm Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.