SPECIAL SENSES
VISION
DR. MOSES KAZEVU (BSC, MBCHB)
Secrets of Physio
OBJECTIVES
1. FUNCTIONAL ANATOMY OF THE EYE
2. EYE OPTICS AND IMAGE FORMATION
3. PHYSIOLOGY OF VISION
4. VISUAL PATHWAY
5. REFLEXES: ACCOMODATION AND PUPILARY REFLEXES
6. APPLIED ASPECTS AND CLINICALLY RELEVANT
CONDITIONS
AREAS OF IMPORTANCE
1. Processing and transmission of visual impulses in retina
2. Processing and transmission of visual impulses in visual pathway
PROCESSING AND TRANSMISSION AT
RETINA LEVEL
• Photoreceptors transmit receptor potential by electrontonic conduction
(direct flow of current) and not action potential.
• Sequence of transmission: Rods & cone->horizontal cell-> amacrine
cells-> ganglion cells.
• Ganglion cells transmit the visual signals via action potentials to
neurons of lateral geniculate body (Lateral and closely related to
thalamus).
• Impulses are then projected to primary visual cortex.
PROCESSING OF RETINAL IMAGE
• Processing of a retinal image is based on 3 things:
• Concept of receptive field
• Concept of serial processing of the image
• Concept of parallel processing pathway
Receptive field
• This is the influence area of a sensory neuron. It is usually
circular in configuration.
• Each cell (Photoreceptor, Horizontal cell and Bipolar cell)
has its own unique receptive field
PHOTORECEPTORS
• Have a small and circular receptive field.
• Light falls on photoreceptor= hyperpolarization
• In the dark, photoreceptor= depolarization= release of glutamate
(neurotransmitter)
• Therefore when hyperpolarized the photoreceptor will release less
neurotransmitter.
HORIZONTAL CELLS
• They have a very large receptive field when compared to
photoreceptors
• Transmit signals horizontally in outer plexiform layer from
photoreceptors to bipolar cells.
• They enhance the visual contrast by causing lateral inhibition
(remember horizontal cells release GABA).
BIPOLAR CELL
• 2 TYPES
• BP cells that are inhibited by glutamate (Depolarized)
• BP cells which are excited by glutamate (hyperpolarized)
• Receptive fields of BP cells are also circular in configuration but have center-
surround antagonism.
• When light strikes the center and the “on cell” (cell that is depolarized by light in
center) the surrounding cells are inhibited
• When light strikes the center and the “off-cell” (cell that is hyperpolarized by light in
center) the surrounding cells are stimulated
THIS PROVIDES A SECOND
MECHANISMS OF LATERAL INHIBITION
AMACRINE CELLS
• Receive information at the synapse of bipolar cell axon with ganglion
cell dendrite.
• Amacrine cells produce transient depolarizing potentials and spikes at
the onset and offset of visual stimulus.
• They are the first cells in the visual pathway for generating the
impulse.
• Amacrine cells modify the local graded potential and transmit it to the
ganglion cells which in turn transmit their signals via action potentials
to the brain.
Ganglion cells
• Ganglion cells also have a center-surround antagonism and like
bipolar cells are also of two types in terms of their center response:
• “on-center” cells increase discharge and
• “off-center” cells decrease discharge upon illumination of the center of
their receptive field.
• Functionally there are 2 types of ganglion cells:
• M ganglion cells (Large ganglion cells/ Y cells): concerned with
movements and stereopsis (binocular vision-depth perception)
• P ganglion cells (Small ganglion cells/ X cells): concerned with
shape, colour and texture of the image
Serial processing of image in retina
• INVOLVES FORMATION OF 3 IMAGES
• FIRST
• SECOND
• THIRD
FIRST IMAGE
• It is formed by the action of light on the photoreceptors.
• The photoreceptors break up the image into small spots of light or
darkness (like a scanner that breaks down a picture into small pixels)
SECOND IMAGE
• The first image is converted into second image by bipolar cells.
• During the formation of the second image the signal is altered by the
horizontal cells through lateral inhibition (spatial summation)
• REMEMBER two types of summation
• Spatial - many neuronal inputs
• Temporal-single neuronal input
THIRD IMAGE
• Second image is converted into third image by the ganglion cells.
• During formation of third image the signal is altered by amacrine cells
via temporal summation.
• Image processing in ganglion cells results in the sharpening of the
image contrast.
• There is a little change in the image impulse pattern in the lateral
genicular body so this image reaches the occipital cortex.
PARALEL PROCESSING PATHWAY
• This is mainly due to the
• Magnocellular pathway (formed by the large M cells and their processes)
• Parvocellular pathway (formed by small P cells and their processes)
• These pathways are involved in the parallel processing of the image i.e. analysis
of different features of the image.
• The M pathway is concerned with processing and detection of movement,
depth and flicker feature of visual information.
• The P pathway is concerned with colour vision, texture, shape and fine details.
VISUAL PATHWAY
Visual pathway
• In binocular vision, the light rays from temporal half of visual field fall upon the
nasal part of corresponding retina. The rays from nasal half of visual field fall
upon the temporal part of the retina.
• The visual pathway comprises of the retina, optic nerve, optic
chiasma, optic tract, lateral geniculate body, optic radiation
(geniculo-calcarine tract) and the visual cortex.
• The visual pathway consists of 3 orders of neurons like general
sensory pathways:
• 1st order neuron: bipolar cell equivalent to dorsal root ganglion cell
of spinal cord.
• 2nd order neuron: ganglion cell (optic nerve).
• 3rd order neuron: lateral geniculate nucleus.
• Optic nerve fibers are axons of the retinal ganglion cells and carry the
total output of retina.
• The eye and can be divided into 2 halves: temporal halve and a nasal
half.
• Temporal visual fields project onto the nasal retina.
• Nasal visual fields project onto the temporal retina
• At the optic chiasm the optic nerve fibers from the nasal halves of the retinas
cross to the opposite sides, where they join the uncrossed fibers from the opposite
temporal retinas to form the optic tracts.
• The optic chiasm is a flattened structure lying above the pituitary fossa.
• Crossing of optic nerve fibers implies that visual impulse from the temporal
half of visual field goes to the opposite side while input from the nasal half of
the visual field remains in the same side.
VISUAL PATHWAY
• The fibers of each optic tract run backwards towards the cerebral
peduncle where they turn around it and reach the dorsal lateral
geniculate nucleus of the thalamus where they synapse giving off
geniculocalcarine fibers (optic radiation) that pass by way of the optic
radiation (also called the geniculocalcarine tract) to the primary visual
cortex in the calcarine fissure area of the medial occipital lobe.
VISUAL PATHWAY
A LITTLE ABOUT THE LGB
• The lateral geniculate nucleus forms a sub-cortical relay for
visual impulses and is part of the thalamus
• The lateral geniculate nucleus is divided into six layers of
cells.
• The crossed fibers of the optic tract terminate in 1, 4 and 6
layers while the uncrossed fibers terminate in 2, 3 and 5
layers.
VISUAL PATHWAY
• Some fibers do not synapse in the lateral geniculate body but pass through it and
terminate in one of the following:
• Superior colliculus: concerned with reflex movements of eyeballs and head in
response to optic stimulus.
• Pretectal nucleus: it is concerned with light reflexes.
• Supraoptic nucleus of hypothalamus: it is concerned with the retinal control of
pituitary in animals. But it does not play any important role in humans.
• The optic radiation passes through the internal capsule and
terminates in primary visual area (17) and from there they
pass to visual association areas 18 and 19.
• Primary visual area 17 is concerned with perception of visual impulses.
• Area 18 is concerned with interpretation of impulses.
• Area 19 is concerned with the movement of the eyes.
• Areas 29, 21, 7 and 8 also have roles in the visual processing.
• Retina has definite localized representation in the visual cortex.
Macula has the largest representation in the posterior part of the visual
cortex near the occipital pole.
• The peripheral part of retina has representation in the anterior part of
the visual cortex along the calcarine fissure.
• The left half of the field of vision is represented in the visual cortex of
right hemisphere along the calcarine fissure and vice versa.
VISUAL PATHWAY
THANK YOU
Secrets of Physio
