week 3 - anatomy of the eye + photoreceptors Flashcards
What is the main stimulus of vision?
light
light
exists on a huge spectrum but humans are only able to see a small portion of all light rays
Can humans see UV rays?
no, but bees can
infrared rays
perspective view (heat vs. cold)
How can you right right eye from left eye when looking from above?
the optic nerve will move towards the middle/nose area
cornea
the initial, transparent layer that light passes through
In what order does light go through the eye?
- cornea
- iris
- pupil
- lens
- vitreous humor
- retina
iris
colored part of eye
pupil
- hole at the center of iris
- controls amount of light coming into eye (dilates and shrinks)
lens
refracts light with the help of the cornea
What is the purpose of refraction?
allows us to focus light on retina
vitreous humor
- clear gel that fills up space between lens and retina
- makes up majority of eyeball
- filled with nutrients
What is transduction in simple terms?
Visual receptors are turning external stimulus (light waves) into something the brain can understand (electrochemical patterns).
What are the 3 main layers of the retina?
- ganglion cells
- bipolar cells
- photoreceptors
How does light information enter into the retina?
- light enters from the ganglion cells and into the photoreceptors where it it goes through transduction
- information from photoreceptors is sent to the bipolar cells and then the ganglion cells
- the axons of the ganglion cells (optic nerve) send that information to the brain
How do our receptive fields capture information?
- Everything is projected onto the opposing side of our back wall
- Our left visual field goes to right side and vice versa.
- Our top visual field is projected onto the bottom of wall and vice versa
Why do we not perceive everything based on how it is projected into our retina?
our brain codes and fills in the gaps of missing information
optic disk
- lacks photoreceptors and retina
- natural blind spot