h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i saw an advert on tv for this special human bio thing in the paper this week and it said that babies see the world upside down, is this true?

I can't think why they should. I know that the image on your retina is upside down with respect to the outside world, but there's no reason why that should mean that you "see upside down".

i think it's perfectly possible.
Our brains automatically convert the image on our retina to being the "right way up". If you give people special glasses that re-convert that image to being upside down, after a period of time the brain learns to change the way it processes the information so that once again we see things as normal.
Perhaps in newborn babies, they have not yet learned to turn the image round. I can't imagine it lasts too long, though.
Mind you, I am no expert on the subject, so if anybody knows better go for it!

I didn't think babies could see anything. I.e. their brain has to spend time learning how to interpret the information it gets from its eyes meaning that initially they only see blobs. I would assume that as the brain works out what these blobs are and learns to focus the eyes it also works out that the image at the bottom of the eye is from the top of the picture. So, while babies might not initially know which way is up they also wouldn't be able to see what is up anyway.
(A very big "I think" on this)

The brain does not "turn the image over". It just labels one end of the image as "up" and the other end as "down". So it is meaningless to say that babies see things upside down.

When we give volunteers inverting glasses, suddently the end that was labelled top is now showing the bottom, so that is a shock. It is surprising but well documented that the brain copes with this even in an adult.

Ferino so if i were to wear some of those glases it would soon seem normal to me, and when i take them off it will once again seem weird?

Dr M - while it's true that babies have to learn to interpret what they are seeing, they are programmed from birth to cleave towards (lovely phrase) certain images. Show a baby a classic hootoo and a bunch of equal sized, equally clear graphics, and they will give more attention to the face. From day one. Clever, isn't it?

yeah, they'll seem weird for a bit, but becomes normal again after a while.
Gnomon seems to be more of an authority on this than me though. To clear up what I was getting at, I just couldn't think of a better way to put it than the brain "turns things round" but gnomon has done that now! I wasn't trying to say that is actually a physical thing that it does....
Point taken about the meaningless of saying babies see things upside down though.

"Gnomon seems to be more of an authority on this than me though"

...now there's a phrase that you don't hear very often!

Gnomon is right - it's our brains that have to interpret the input they receive & relate it to our physical position. Think about babies to reach for objects, learning hand eye co-ordination.

Your brain will adapt to spectacles that invert the image - intially the picture looks upside-down but after a while it will appear to be the right way up. When the specs are removed, the transition back to the original state is fairly quick.

if u r born looking at everything upside down, then why dont we stay that way, shouldnt that be the write way up? if not then why do we start off like that?

It is the right way up. We don't change.

http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae353.cfm
"In one psychological study, participants were asked to wear inverting lenses - lenses that invert the image BEFORE they get to your eye, so that when your eye inverts it, it's right-side-up. At first, everything appeared upside-down to the participants. But, after a few days, people began to report that everything appeared right-side-up! As a second part of the study, the people were asked to take the glasses off. Because they were now used to the lenses, their NORMAL vision appeared upside-down!! Within a day, though, their vision returned to normal. The reason you don't see everything upside-down, then, is simply because it's easier to think about right-side-up!" -Michael Brady, Computer Engineering Undergrad., NCSU, Raleigh

Thanks, Nancy. That's what I was talking about in Posting 5.

Sometimes you just say something the whole conversation just dies. I'm glad this one has recovered, after an 8 year break.

I've just been pondering for 6 or 7 years, to pose exactly the right and witty repost ...