Scientists show mice an Orson Welles movie, then disprove dogma about how vision works
By the end of the study, the textbook understanding of how the brain “sees” had been as badly damaged as the convertible in the opening scene of “Touch of Evil."
The filmgoers didn’t flinch at the scene of the dapper man planting a time bomb in the trunk of the convertible, or tense up as the unsuspecting driver and his beautiful blonde companion drove slowly through the town teeming with pedestrians, or jump out of their seats when the bomb exploded in fiery carnage. And they sure as heck weren’t wowed by the technical artistry of this famous opening shot of Orson Welles’ 1958 noir masterpiece, “Touch of Evil,” a single three-minute take that ratchets up the suspense to 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
In fairness, lab mice aren’t on Monday.
