Visual System Overview Flashcards
What are the 6 major parts of the Visual System?
- Retina
- Dorsal Lateral Geniculate Nucleus of the Thalamsus (dLGN)
- Primary Visual Cortex
- Superior Colliculus
- Pretectum
- Suprachiasmatic Nucleus of the Hypothalamus
Describe the fluid dynamics of the eye
- Vitreous Humor
2. Aqueous Humor
What are the 5 cell types in the retina?
- Photoreceptors
- Bipolar
- Ganglions
- Horizontal
- Amacrine
Discuss the relationship between polarization and neurotransmitter release.
Photoreceptors hyperpolarize and decrease neurotransmitter release when exposed to light. Vice versa.
What is the primary source of blood to the eye?
Ophthalmic branch of the internal carotid.
What supplies the choroid layer?
Short and Long posterior ciliary arteries serve the photoreceptors, ciliary muscle and iris
What supplies the inner retina?
Central retinal artery and vein
What supplies the outer retina?
Long and short postrior ciliary arteries
What supplies the ciliary muscle and iris?
Long posterior ciliary artery
Discuss the path of light in the eye
The retina has an ‘inside-out’ organization; light entering the eye first passes over the ganglion cells on the inner retinal surface before reaching the photoreceptors located in the outer layer of the retina.
What are the seven retinal layers?
- Pigment Epithelium
- Outer nuclear layer
- Outer plexiform layer
- Inner nuclear layer
- Inner plexiform layer
- Ganglion cell layer
- Nerve fiber layer
What are the 3 types of glial cells in the retina?
- Muller glia: Retinal homeostasis
- Microglial: Immune response to injury
- Astrocytes
What are 5 characteristics of Rods?
- Absent from fovea
- High sensitivity in low light
- Scotopic-Mesopic range
- High convergence
- Achromatic
What are 5 characteristics of cones?
- Low sensitivity
- Mesopic-Photopic range.
- Low convergence
- High density in fovea
- High resolution
