Importance of Binocular Vision
Greetings to all and sundry,
It is another beautiful today and I am happy to come your way once again with some ocular health lessons as I usually do. My role as a teaching and research assistant now is exposing me to a lot of the things I learned over the years and it only feels right that I share this knowledge with you.
For today we would be talking a bit about binocular vision or better still seeing with the two eyes and its importance to us as humans. I know most of you out there may never have wondered how it would have felt to lose an eye or what benefit you may be losing as a result. We all believe seeing with both eyes is the norm and nothing else matters. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the lessons.
Binocular Vision
When we say or talk about binocular vision, what we are talking about or referring to is the use of the two eyes to see. Bi means two and ocular means eyes, it is as simple as it gets. When we see with both eyes we do not see objects in two but one. This is the norm and it's known as Single Binocular Vision.
We are emphasizing Single because there are individuals with Binocular vision anomalies that do not allow them to see one but two. This is known as diplopia. These people may have anatomical anomalies or physiological anomalies which may prevent the normal fusion of the two images from the two eyes into one.
By the way, each eye sees on its own and the way each eye sees is slightly different from the other, this allows for some benefits the common one been stereopsis which would be talked about a bit more shortly. When the two eyes' images get to the brain, it does its magic to it and brings the two together to become thus allowing us to see singly.
Benefits of Binocular Vision
I know at this point someone may be seeing if each eye can see on its own then why do we have two eyes? Ok fine I know you did not ask that but another just did, ask your friend reading this with you. Lol. So back to the topic, having two eyes gives us some additional benefits as compared to having just one eye for vision.
Using one eye for vision is known as monovision though for my curious readers' benefit. One of the benefits of binocular vision is stereopsis, stereopsis simply talks about appreciation of depth up close. Yes with one eye you can see depth but with one eye you wouldn't have stereopsis and wouldn't be able to appreciate depth as you would with both eyes.
Quickly try this exercise, hold a pen up close and close one eye, the quickly try to touch the tip then do this with both eyes opened. Which worked better? So yh binocular vision gives us the benefit of stereopsis. The other would be the fact that things are enhanced and made better with both eyes. Now if you have ever visited the Optometrist you realized that he checked each eye individually before both.
You would also realize that your eyes may not be seeing equally if you try closing them one after the other to access how well they see, however when both are opened you appreciate the vision better and enjoy it better. At this juncture, I must add that having a binocular vision is a prerequisite to getting job opportunities in places like the Aviation industry though. But that's just by the way.
Conclusion
And so having a binocular vision is important and helps us to have a better quality of life but please do not say you have two eyes and so you would joke with one for it is when you lose it that you would see how important it was. I hope you learned a thing or two from what I shared today though.
I would be continuing with more binocular health lessons as time goes on but until then I wish you a happy weekend. Stay safe and have a wonderful time. Cheers!
Rerefences
Levi, D. M., Knill, D. C., & Bavelier, D. (2015). Stereopsis and amblyopia: A mini-review. Vision research, 114, 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2015.01.002
Rosen E. S. (2013). Binocular vision. Journal of cataract and refractive surgery, 39(10), 1455–1456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrs.2013.08.017
Blake, R., & Wilson, H. (2011). Binocular vision. Vision research, 51(7), 754–770. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2010.10.009
Başgöze, Z., Mackey, A. P., & Cooper, E. A. (2018). Plasticity and Adaptation in Adult Binocular Vision. Current biology : CB, 28(24), R1406–R1413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.024
I have tried the exercise and it worked . Thank you for giving us this vital information about the eye. I look forward to see more from you. Enjoy your weekend too
You are very much welcomed
Hi, friend. I am forming a curation team for the "Finance & Technology" areas. If you still don't have a team and you are interested, you can write to me on discord:
oscarcc89#4887Kind regards
Thank you bro