Funded by the NIH, researchers at Johns Hopkins published an interesting paper in Neuron this week that adds to our growing understanding of visual organization at the level of neurons and how this impacts individual perception.

"The figure is famous (below): a deceptively simple line drawing that at first glance resembles a vase and, at the next, a pair of human faces in profile. When you look at this figure, your brain must rapidly decide what the various lines denote. Are they the outlines of the vase or the borders of two faces? How does your brain decide?

The report, based on recordings of nerve cells in the visual cortex of macaque monkeys, suggests that this automatic processing of images is repeated each time an individual looks at something new, usually three to four times per second. What's more, the brain provides what von der Heydt calls "a sophisticated program" to select and process the information that is relevant at any given moment."

Maybe this explains why ads on MTV are getting faster and faster.