The Visual System Part 1 Flashcards
Three Types of Eyes
1) Camera eyes (simple lens eye and corneal) 2) Compound eyes
Difference between simple and compound eyes
Simple Eyes: A single lens collects and focuses light onto the retina of the eye.
Compound eyes: Multiple lenses are involved. Each of them focuses the light onto a small number of retinular cells
Simple Eye Animals
Vertebrates, Cephalopod, jellyfish, gastropods, annelids and one type of copepod crustacean
Simple Corneal Eye Animals
Arachnids, some vertebrates and some larval insects
Compound eye Animals
Insects, crustaceans, some mollusks, and annelids
Ciliary Muscle
Connects to the iris and changes the shape of the lens when your eyes focus on a near object
Iris Function
Controls the opening of the pupil
Lens Function
Connected to ciliary muscles transmit and focus the light onto the retina in order to create clear images of observed objects at various distances
Cornear
Outer transparent layer at the front of the eye is specialized to allow incoming light rays to enter the eye
Steps of Light Entering Eyes
1) Light enters the eye through the cornea
2) From the cornea, the light passes through the pupil. The iris, or the colored part of your eye, controls the amount of light passing through.
3) From there, it then hits the lens light is focused by the lens and passes through vitreous humor
4) It reaches the back of the eye where it is received by the photoreceptors of the retina, which are concentrated in the fovea.
5) Images are inverted in retina and the optic optic nerve is then responsible for carrying the signals to the visual cortex of the brain
6) he visual cortex turns the signals into images
Branch of Ophthalmic Artery
Supplying blood to the retina and veins that are exiting out of the retina
Optic Disck
1) Represents the beginning of the optic nerve and is the point where the axons of retinal ganglion cells come together
Optic Nerve
Cranial nerve sends visual information from your retina to your brain
Accommodation Def +Function
Describes the refractive power of the lens to ensure clarity of an image
What is accommodation based on?
Contraction of ciliary muscles which releases tension of zonule fibres
Zonule fibers
Allows for elasticity of lens to increase its curvature
Myopia
an image of a distant object becomes focused in front of the retina, instead of the on the retina making distant objects appear out of focus.
Hyperopia
An image of a distant object becomes focused behind the retina, making objects up close appear out of focus.
Which layers do horizontal cells and amacrine cells mediate lateral interactions?
Outer and inner plexiform layers
Horizontal Cells
Modulate information flow from photoreceptors to bipolar cells
Where do bipolar cells exist?
Between photoreceptors (rod cells and cone cells) and ganglion cells.
Which layer are amaricne, bipolar and horizontal cells and photorecpetors? located
Inner Nuclear Layer
Bipolar Cells function
Bipolar cells receive input from photoreceptors (rods and cones) in the outer retina and transmit signals to amacrine and ganglion cells in the inner retina.
Ganglion Cells
Carry information from photoreceptors received from interneurons into the brain via the optic nerve
Inner Plexiform Layer
Consists of synaptic connections between the axons of bipolar cells and dendrites of ganglion cells.
What does Outer Plexiform Layer contain?
Synapses between axons of photoreceptors and dendrites of bipolar and horizontal cells
Outer Plexiform Layer Function
The splitting of the visual signal into two separate channels of information flow, one for detecting objects lighter than background and one for detecting objects darker that background
What does outer nuclear layer contain
The cell bodies of the photoreceptor cells.
Nerve Fiber Layer
A layer that is formed by the expansion of optic nerve and includes the axons of the ganglion cells bodies also lie in this layer.
Where are rods found in the retina?
Found concentrated in the outer edges of the retina and are much more abundant than the cone cells.
Rod Function
Help in identifying the shape, size and brightness of images and cannot perceive light
Cones Function
Less sensitive to light and are responsible for perceiving colour and fine details of a visual image.
Where are cones found in retina?
concentrated in the fovea centralis which is a rods free area.
List the photopigment(s) found in rods.
Rhodopsin
List the photopigment(s) found in cones
opsin: short (blue), medium (green), long (red
Retinal Pigment Epithelium
Function is to provide nourishment to the retinal visual cells.
What type of vision occurs in levels of light at which only rods are activated?
Scotopic
What type of vision occurs in levels of light at which both rods and cones contribute (at twilight, for example)?
Mesopic
What type of vision occurs in levels of light at which only cones contribute—at twilight, for example?
Photopic
Important Property of Opsin
They can change their conformation from a resting state to a signalling state upon light absorption, which activates the G protein, thereby resulting in a signalling cascade that produces physiological responses
How does the phototranduction begin in a rod?
Begins with the absorption of a photon of light that causes the breaking of a double bond in 11-cis-retinal forming the isomer all-trans-retinal.
Where does the recycling of all-trans-retinal needs to be recycled into 11-cis-retinal occur?
retinal pigment epithelium,
Steps of Retinoid Cycle
1) All trans retinal is converted to all trans retinol (alchohol)
2) It is transported by the chaperone protein IRBP into the pigment epithelium
3) . There, in a series of steps, it is converted to 11-cis retinal and transported back to the outer segment (again via IRBP), where it recombines with opsin
Why is the retinoid cycle important?
Allows for continuous phototransduction in the retina.
What does light adaptation allow?
Allows the eye has to quickly adapt to the background illumination to be able to distinguish objects in this background.