In this video a guy who uses pure mathematical theories to make educated guesses about biological systems before designing his experiments to test those predictions (apparently that’s abnormal) breaks down how vision works in the eye and brain.

Jack Cowan is Professor of Mathematics and Neurology at The University of Chicago. His research is concerned with understanding how circuits in the visual cortex process information, which he uses mathematics to investigate. Cowan developed a neural field theory with H.R. Wilson and then showed how to use nonlinear stability theory to analyze how patterns of stable activity could arise in neural networks.

I’ve loved all my visual hallucinations as soon as I found out they weren’t permanent. Because of the structure of the organs we use to see, we can only hallucinate four different ways. There’s also a trivial-looking topographical mapping of retinal regions to visual cortex region which makes me think weird thoughts of how we see from inside our skulls.