Jenna M. Lang edited untitled.md  about 8 years ago

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#big picture questions, motivation and relevance But, actually, pie charts are a problem because the human brain is not good at estimating area. And, it is worse at estimating angles than lengths, so the stacked bar chart is an improvement upon the pie chart for that reason. However, when the number of chunks in a bar or pie chart increase, the value of the graphic to convey information about overall community composition takes a nose dive.  Given that human brains are not well-equipped to interpret pie charts, how can we present microbial community data in a form of which we can make sense? The solution to this problem lies in a region of the brain called the fusiform gyrus.   This region of the brain allows us to process a particular, very complex image in an instant, undergoing relatively little decomposition into component parts. Instead, they are encoded via a holistic or integrative mechanism, as a gestalt.