Nº 012 · Perception · 1 min

There's a hole in your field of view.

A cross on the left, a dot on the right. With the left eye closed, the dot disappears in the blind spot.
Interactive · Try it in the app

Why there's nothing there

This is where the optic nerve leaves the eye. There are no light-sensitive cells there, so no image comes from that spot. It lies about 15 degrees to the side of the point you're looking at.

Your brain fills it in

You never notice the hole because your brain fills it: with what's around it and with the image from the other eye. Switch the exercise to "Line with gap" – in the blind spot your brain simply closes the gap.

The octopus doesn't have one

In vertebrates the nerve fibers run in front of the retina and have to pass through it somewhere. In the octopus they lie behind it. Its eye, which evolved independently of ours, therefore has no blind spot.

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia (German): Blinder Fleck (Auge) (accessed 2026-10-05)
  2. Wikipedia: Blind spot (vision) (accessed 2026-10-05)