We often think of our eyes as a camera — something passive, natural — and that we view the world involuntarily. Images are simply something transmitted to the brain.

According to Richard Solso, there are three parts to vision: the light, the eye, and the brain. Each one imparts its own influence on what we end up perceiving as “sight.”

One interesting finding from the realm of neuroscience involves the emotional response our brains form from visual stimuli. Visual signals are sent from your eye to the thalamus, from where they eventually go to the visual cortex and become the image we see. However, before this signal can reach the visual cortex, it actually reaches the amygdala first. The amygdala is responsible for processing our emotional reactions. In other words, we process an emotional reaction to what we see before we even know we’re seeing it!