Lecture 7- Vision II: Central processing Flashcards
What are the characteristics of the M ganglion cells?
-magnocellular=large cells -large receptive fields -make up about 10% of ganglion cells -motion detection, flicker and analysis of gross features -can tell if sth is moving or not, not good at fine detail
What are the characteristics of the P ganglion cells?
-parvocellular= small cells -more numerous (about 80% of ganglion cells) -provide fine detail (visual acuity) and colour vision
What is this picture showing?
-this pic shows the AP of a P ganglion cels as reacting to different frequencies of light -one ganglion cell, it responds best to one wavaelength= black it is important for carrying info for colour
What is the output region of the ganglion cells?
-many brain regions -mainly the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in the thalamus
What is the visual pathway?
- Retina
- Optic nerve
- LGN
- Optical radiations
- Visual cortex
- starts in the retina= the axons of optic nerve then synapse with the thalamus (LGN), then the LGN neurons have optic radiations (white matter) goes all the way back to the visual cortex V1
Where is the optic chiasm and what happens there?
- lies at the base of the brain, anterior to the pituitary
- the fibres from right and left optic nerves combine to form the optic chasm
What fibres cross at the optic chiasm?
-nasal
What hemisphere is the right visual field “viewed” by?
-left
What hemisphere is the left visual field “viewed” by?
-right
Explain:
-the nasal fibres cross over -get information from both eyes in each hemisphere -partial crossing of the visual field
How many layers are there in the LGN?
-6 -contain 2 typesof cells
What layers do the magnocellular cells and the parvocellular cells occupy in the LGN?
-6 layers -Magno=1 and 2 (one layer for info from each eye) -Parvo =3,4,5,6= two of these for info from each eye
What cells in the LGN do the the P and M ganglion cells target?
P ganglion= parvocellular cells M ganglion= magnocellular cells
What is the function of the thalamus?
-functional relay station for sensory information -except for taste!
Is the visual information separated or mixed in the LGN?
-separated, keep M and P streams of information separate, and information from each of the eyes is also kept separate
What are the optic radiations?
- the axons of the magnocellular and parvocellular LGN neurons carrying information to the visual cortex
- white matter, big, enclose the ventricles
Where do the LGN neurons project to?
-the primary visual cortex