Can you learn to see more in a shorter amount of time? Recently, I started working with a program called Insight from Posit Science, and the program has helped me achieve just that. One exercise, for example, flashes a group of birds onto the computer screen. All the birds but one are identical, and the task is to find the odd bird out.

When I first started the exercise, the birds seem to flash on the screen too quickly for me to tell them apart especially because the difference between the one odd bird and all the others was subtle. But as I practiced, the odd bird seemed to stand out from the background. What had happened in my brain? The sensitivity of neurons in the visual cortex can change depending upon the task at hand. Input from other regions of the brain that modulate attention or judge the importance of a task may alter the response of visual cortical cells. Perhaps, the sensitivity of some of these neurons had been altered to make it easier to single out the odd bird. This form of visual plasticity can develop rapidly with practice.