Interesting ideas interspersed with nonsense

Liz Dzeng - Aug 6, 2011, 5:43p
Hey Nik! Wow, I'm so impressed that your doing this. It sounds incredibly hard with a huge amount of self discipline required. I could not even last an hour I bet if I tried. I've really enjoyed reading your posts which are so descriptive and introspective. You really should publish these findings in a scientific journal, so few experiments have been done on this. I'm really interested to read about your "unmasking"!

Niniane - Aug 23, 2011, 1:14a
Are there any more entries??

Yu-li - Aug 6, 2011, 6:57a
I like your introspective description. You really did something hard. I don't want to try that even though I wonder how it feels like.

About construction of space, I think measure theory can be helpful. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measure_theory) Even without visual information, it must be possible to construct mental space of things as we have information on spatial order of things. I think what matters is (mental) metric (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_%28mathematics%29).

Kanika - Aug 5, 2011, 4:40p
I don't know if you did this already - bit about three years ago a movie came out- beautiful movie about the blind- called BLACK by Sanjay leela bansali staring amitabh.... I must watch it!!!

Yu-li - Aug 5, 2011, 7:41p
Interesting. Your experiment tells that normal sense of distance greatly depends on visual information.It must be specific to visual sense. Physically, other types of information are not very sensitive to distance I think (They are not linear. I mean, the strength of scent depends on both distance and quantity for example). I am sorry that my description is not very accurate.

Good luck!

Niniane - Aug 5, 2011, 9:05p
This is an awesome story. I like all the details of how you're watching Teen Wolf, etc. It sounds domestic and pleasant.

mom - Aug 12, 2011, 1:16p
good reading your descriptions and findings son. Yes, the Indian movie 'Black' suggested by Kanika is wonderful and maybe you would be able to appriciate it. Netflix should have it.

sakshi - Aug 24, 2011, 8:45p
hmmm.. ive been out of the loop !!! just got back in.. another thumbs up for black !!!

Nicky - Aug 5, 2011, 7:57a
Did a desire to rip off the eye mask emerge after a few days? Did it just take longer than food deprivation or isolation? I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next post!

nikhil - Aug 5, 2011, 10:07a
Nope, a desire to rip off the eyemask and open my eyes never emerged, certainly nothing like the desire to eat after food deprivation or the desire to breathe after air deprivation.

Howard - Aug 5, 2011, 10:53a
well, those are interesting comparisons because one could argue that the other two forms of deprivation you use for example are tied to very real needs of survival on a biological level. While food is a little different because given your survival school mean experiment you weren't lacking nutrition just variety and craving. With air deprivation, that's entirely different, no air = no life and your body starts to react involuntarily. so the one easy conclusion is that vision is not tied to survival instincts

nikhil - Aug 5, 2011, 1:05p
Howard, I completely agree. I also think it's interesting to think about the brain basis for each of these deprivations. Vision is believed to rely mostly on the outer parts of the brain (the cortex), whereas more basic body functions like breathing and perhaps even hunger lie deeper in the brain. Maybe it's these different brain locations that contribute to the different class of feelings that each type of deprivation generates. So maybe inner brain deprivations generate the intrinsic or visceral feeling to stop, while outer brain deprivations don't.

Yu-li - Aug 5, 2011, 7:28p
Hi, I've waited for your post! Your experiment is so interesting. Some ideas come to my mind.

1) You could feel sleepy because of conditioning. The sense of darkness might be associated with sleepiness.

2) You also could feel tired because of mental resource reallocation. (It's a hypothesis). I mean, in some sense, you had depended on visual feedback in order to control your movement. Now you have to decide your movement without some information, so you need to compensate the loss with other types of information. Your body and brain could have been working very hard subconsciously.

3) I think some portion of emotional stability(?) can be explained by decreased quantity of information. I mean, it might not be specific to visual sense. For example, if you cannot smell, you would feel quite indifferent to food.

That's what I think. Good luck!

neha - Jul 15, 2011, 9:51a
I was going to ask you if you and Becca wanted to hang out soon. Perhaps the week after.

Niniane - Jul 15, 2011, 8:28p
Ok this is awesome. I want to hear how it is!!!

Yu-li - Jul 16, 2011, 1:51p
Sounds interesting! I would like to do the same experiment by myself, but I am too lazy...

I think it is better to measure the effect as objective as possible. How about preparing a color chart so that you can compare the visual perception?

Good luck!

Dylan - Jul 16, 2011, 2:24p
Good for you. I'm very curious to hear your findings after this. My non-informed guess is you will indeed make it a week, but will spend much of your time just sitting and listening to the radio.

Retsina - Jul 18, 2011, 7:07a
Very cool, Nikhil :)

Mom - Jul 25, 2011, 2:53p
Nik - You awesome but crazy kid, you must have begun your experiment by now. I know you will not be reading this blog until you restore your vision. You may look like a raccoon with white circles around your eyes...ha ha.Maybe a visit to the Braille institute will help you read faster and not get bored. Becca can convey my words if she is reading your blog to you.

I look forward to discussing your observation with you...Be careful son.

xoxox

Interesting ideas interspersed with nonsense - RSS - by nikhil bhatla, nbhatla@mit.edu -