While many scientists are studying stuff that is far away or long ago, or very small, we don't even know how we do what we do everyday, such as how we see, hear, learn, think, remember and forget, or even sleep. That is why some people predict, and I definitely believe, the next major scientific breakthrough in the 21 century will come from the brain science, just as the major breakthroughs we have had in this century, such as the quantum theory and the relativity theory.
This is the course that will take you to the exciting area of vision study, which is part of the effort of understanding the brain. Vision starts with the detection of the photons on your retina composed of different types of specialized neural cells, which are in fact part of your brain. That is probably why you should look directly into someone's EYES to see what is going on in his or her BRAIN!
But seeing takes place not only in the eye, but also in the cerebral cortex of the brain, about one third of which is dedicated to vision. (Aren't you surprised by this percentage? Think about the many other things the brain also has to attend to!) If we know how visual information is processed and how visual perception is formed, we should have some very useful hints about how the remaining two thirds of the brain work.