When we talk about the visual system and the visual cortex, we consider cortical magnification. Cortical magnification is a pretty big deal in most perception studies. In my neurobiology of behavior class, we discussed cortical magnification for several animals with cortically-enhanced areas, like the hands of mole rats (who live in the dark), or the auditory fovea in bats (or humans, really), etc. In class this week, we discussed cortical magnification in terms of facial recognition, and focus upon the eye region.
My honest curiosity is whether attraction can be measured in terms of cortical magnification. Would we have extreme cortical magnification of, say, Angelina Jolie’s lips? At the risk of sounding chauvinistic, if someone is dressed in a revealing manner, it can take quite a mustering of will to maintain eye contact. I presume the same can be said of girls to guys and guys to other guys, and girls to other girls, with differing sexual orientation. If we could measure the visual field’s cortical magnification, would we see a large percentage of cells dedicated to the periphery?
In a less crass (although still slightly uncouth) manner of speaking, suppose you find yourself in conversation with someone who has some enormous growth on their face, like a third ear on their forehead. I think that if I saw someone like that, and then saw a visual representation of my cortical magnification, it would be about 99% third ear.
