• Question: Why is it that humans can move their eyes in opposite directions toward the nose, but not away from the nose?

    Asked by flick to Hermine, Katy, Laura, Nathalie, Paula on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Hi there,

      Well, our eyes evolved so as to be able to focus on the same thing, whether it’s kilometers away (eyes straight ahead) to things right in front of us (eyes inward). To perform their function (provide information about what’s going on to the brain) our eyes work with each other to produce one single picture, not two pictures. Our eyes thus see things in unison not separately 😉

    • Photo: Laura Dixon

      Laura Dixon answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Our eyes focus on one direction or object, so they’re not really looking in 2 different directions but focusing on the same object. This can’t happen with both eyes looking away from the nose 🙂

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Normally, your eyes focus on things at the same time – even when you are looking at your nose. To move in different directions away from the nose would be to focus on different objects, which unfortunately, our eyes can’t do.

      I sometimes would like to have eyes like a chameleon, so I could like in different directions at the same time and have full 360 degrees vision! 😉 Wouldn’t you?

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Well, i’m sure one of the other ladies has got a much more accurate answer for this but it must be something to do with the way your eyes focus on objects?

      So, assuming you are using both eyes, if you want to focus on an object both eye have to be looking at that object. And since your eyes are slightly separated that means your eyes will always be directed slightly towards each other, hence being able to move them inwards to see your nose (albeit not very well focussed). If we wanted to move our eyes away from each other, we’d have to be focussing on objects in two different places at once, which is impossible…..i think…..

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      This is due to how our brain interprets information. See we use both eyes to fully analyse an object in a visual basis. By this I mean judge its shape/size/colour and purpose through our eyes. A lot of that can be done with one eye however to accurately judge a size or the distance we are away from the object we require both eyes due to how they send the information to our brains. Soooo over the many many many years, back before I can even remember, as we evolved from the very early stages of life our eyes evolved to operate this way so that we could hunt and protect ourselves, ever since we have used our eyes in the same fashion and hence why we are limited to use them the way we do. I do think it would be fun to be a chamellion sometimes be able to look in different directions, be a bit weird though…

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