You can check your blind spot using a simple, at-home method described below.
Understanding the Blind Spot
Your eye's blind spot is the area on the retina where the optic nerve connects. This area lacks photoreceptor cells, making it incapable of detecting light. While it sounds significant, our brains generally compensate for the missing visual information, meaning we don't usually notice this gap in our vision.
How to Locate Your Blind Spot
Follow these steps to find your blind spot using the method described in the reference:
- Position your thumbs: Place your right thumb right next to your left thumb.
- Focus on your left thumb: Keep your gaze fixed on your left thumb.
- Move the right thumb: Slowly move your right thumb to the right, while still looking at your left thumb.
- Observe the disappearance: As you move the right thumb, there will be a point where it seems to disappear from your vision.
- Found it! This point is the location of your right eye's blind spot.
This exercise demonstrates how the blind spot works and how our brains fill in the missing visual information to give us a continuous view of our surroundings. Remember that each eye has its own blind spot, and the procedure above will show you your right eye's blind spot.
