Sensory systems: vision

Dr. Jihane Soueid

[email protected]

PHYL 246

February, 2025
Outline

I. The electromagnetic spectrum

II. Anatomy of the eye
III. Organization of the retina
IV. Neural pathways
V. Color vision
VI. Eye movement
VII. Eye diseases

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Vision

Visual perception requires:

• an organ, the eye, which focuses the visual image and

responds to light

• neural pathways, which interpret the signals and transform

the visual image into a pattern of graded and action
potentials.

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The Electromagnetic Spectrum

(b) Relationship between wavelength and frequency

Light :

• The electromagnetic radiation

(a) Range of visible light in the electromagnetic visible to our eyes
spectrum

• Wavelength, frequency, amplitude

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 The human eye

(a) Internal structures of the eye Science Source (b) Anterior view of eye structures

Gross Anatomy of the Eye

• Pupil: Opening where light enters the eye • Cornea: Glassy transparent external surface
• Sclera: White of the eye of the eye
• Iris: Gives color to eyes • Optic nerve: Bundle of axons from the retina

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 Anatomy of the eye

• The pupil is the opening that allows light to enter the eye and reach the retina; it appears dark because of

the light-absorbing pigments in the retina.

• The pupil is surrounded by the iris, whose pigmentation provides what we call the eye’s color. The iris

contains two muscles that can vary the size of the pupil; one makes it smaller when it contracts, the other

makes it larger.

• The pupil and iris are covered by the glassy transparent external surface of the eye, the cornea. The

cornea is continuous with the sclera, the “white of the eye,” which forms the tough wall of the eyeball.

• The eyeball sits in a bony eye socket in the skull, also called the eye’s orbit. Inserted into the sclera are

three pairs of extraocular muscles, which move the eyeball in the orbit. These muscles are normally not

visible because they lie behind the conjunctiva, a membrane that folds back from the inside of the eyelids

and attaches to the sclera.

• The optic nerve, carrying axons from the retina, exits the back of the eye, passes through the orbit, and

reaches the base of the brain.

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 The retina, viewed through an ophthalmoscope.

• Macula lutea: region relatively free of

blood vessels
• Fovea centralis: high density of
cones, highest visual acuity
• Optic disc: where axons join to form
the optic nerve

(c) Surface structures of the retina

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 Focusing point sources of light involves refraction

(a) Refraction of light by a dense medium

This bending of light occurs

because the speed of light
differs in the two media; light
passes through air more
rapidly than through water.
The greater the difference
between the speed of light in
the two media, the greater
the angle of refraction.

(b) Refraction of light by eye structures

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 Ciliary muscle, zonular fibers, and lens of the eye

• Changes in lens
shape is responsible
for accommodation

(a) Structural elements of the eye involved in accommodation

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 Changes in curvature of the lens when viewing distant
and near objects

(b) Accommodation to distant object

(c) Poor accommodation with relaxed ciliary muscles

(d) Accommodation to near object

Presbyopia : During the aging process, the lens tends to lose elasticity, reducing its
ability to assume a spherical shape
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Vision defects
• If the length of the eyeball does
not match the focusing power of
the lens, defects in vision occurs.

Myopia:

(a) Normal sight compared to myopia with and without correction

Hyperopia:
• Defects in vision also occur when
the lens or cornea does not have
a smoothly spherical surface: (b) Normal sight compared to hyperopia with and without correction

astigmatism.
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Organization of the retina

E.M. show rods

and cones:

bottom left: © Dr. Copenhagen/Beckman Vision Center at UCSF School of Medicine

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Organization of the retina

Direct (vertical) pathway:

• Ganglion cells


• Bipolar cells


• Photoreceptors

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Organization of the retina

Retinal processing also influenced lateral

connections:
• Horizontal cells
Receive input from photoreceptors and
project to other photoreceptors and
bipolar cells
• Amacrine cells
Receive input from bipolar cells and
project to ganglion cells, bipolar cells,
and other amacrine cells

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Phototransduction in a cone cell
In dark, cation entry keeps the membrane depolarized

When light strikes, retinal

dissociates from the opsin and
triggers activation of cGMP
phosphodiesterase, which
degrades cGMP, closing the
cation channel, and allowing the
cell to hyperpolarize.

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Neural pathways of vision

• Light signals are converted into action potentials through the

interaction of photoreceptors with bipolar cells and ganglion
cells.
• Photoreceptor and bipolar cells only undergo graded
responses because they lack the voltage-gated channels
that mediate action potentials in other types of neurons.
• Ganglion cells are the first cells in the pathway where action
potentials can be initiated.
• Photoreceptors interact with bipolar and ganglion cells in two
distinct ways, designated as “ON-pathways” and “OFF-
pathways.” In both pathways, photoreceptors are depolarized in
the absence of light, causing the neurotransmitter glutamate to
be released onto bipolar cells.

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 Effects of light on signaling in on-pathway and off-
pathway ganglion cells

Photoreceptor
Hyperpolarization Hyperpolarization

Inhibitory excitatory
glutamate glutamate
Bipolar cell receptors receptors

Depolarization
Ganglion cell Hyperpolarization

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Retinal Processing
Receptive Field: “On” and “Off” Bipolar Cells
• Receptive field: Stimulation in a small part of the visual field changes a
cell’s membrane potential
• Antagonistic center-surround receptive fields
Types of Ganglion Cell Receptive Fields

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Neural pathways of vision 1

Light striking the photoreceptors of either pathway

hyperpolarizes the photoreceptors, resulting in a decrease
in glutamate release onto bipolar cells.

Two differences in the ON- and OFF-pathways:

• Bipolar cells of the ON-pathway spontaneously depolarize

in the absence of input, but those of the OFF-pathway
hyperpolarize in the absence of input

• Glutamate receptors of ON-pathway bipolar cells are

inhibitory, while those of OFF-pathway bipolar cells are
excitatory.

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Neural pathways of vision 2

• Glutamate released onto ON-pathway bipolar cells binds

to metabotropic receptors that cause enzymatic
breakdown of cGMP, which hyperpolarizes the bipolar
cells, preventing release of excitatory neurotransmitter
onto their associated ganglion cells.
• In the absence of light, ganglion cells of the ON-pathway
are not stimulated to fire action potentials.
• When light strikes the photoreceptors, glutamate release
from photoreceptors declines, ON-bipolar cells depolarize,
excitatory neurotransmitter is released, the ganglion cells
are depolarized, and an increased frequency of action
potentials propagates to the brain.

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Neural pathways of vision 3

• OFF-pathway bipolar cells have ionotropic glutamate receptors

that are nonselective cation channels, which depolarize the
bipolar cells when glutamate binds.
• Depolarization of these bipolar cells stimulates them to release
excitatory neurotransmitter onto their associated ganglion cells,
stimulating them to fire action potentials.
• The OFF-pathway generates action potentials in the absence of
light, and reversal of these processes inhibits action potentials
when light does strike the photoreceptors.
• The coexistence of these ON- and OFF-pathways in each
region of the retina greatly improves image resolution by
increasing the brain’s ability to perceive contrast at edges or
borders.

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 There are many visual illusions involving the perception of light level. The organization of ganglion cell receptive fields

suggests an explanation for the illusion shown in this figure. Even though the two central squares are the same shade of

gray, the square on the lighter background appears darker. Consider the two ON-center receptive fields shown on the

gray squares. In both cases, the same gray light hits the receptive field center. However, the receptive field on the left has

more light in its surround than the receptive field on the right. This will lead to more inhibition and a lower response and

may be related to the darker appearance of the left central gray square.
Fun fact. Do not memorize.
Visual pathways and fields
Right and Left Visual Hemifields
• Left hemifield projects to right side of brain
• Ganglion cell axons from nasal retina cross,
temporal retinal axons stay ipsilateral

(a) Routing of visual input to visual cortex (b) Mechanism of binocular vision

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Neural pathways of vision 4

• Some neurons of the visual pathway project to regions of the

brain other than the visual cortex.
• For example, a recently discovered class of ganglion cells
containing an opsin-like pigment called melanopsin carries
visual information to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which lies
just above the optic chiasm and functions as part of the
“biological clock.”
• Information about the daily cycle of light intensity from these
ganglion cells helps to entrain this neuronal clock to a 24-hour
day -- the circadian rhythm.
• Other visual information passes to the brainstem and
cerebellum, where it is used in the coordination of eye and
head movements, fixation of gaze, and change in pupil size.

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Color vision 1

• The colors we perceive are related to the wavelengths of light that

the pigments in objects reflect, absorb, or transmit.

• For example, an object appears red because it absorbs shorter (blue)

wavelengths, while simultaneously reflecting the longer (red)
wavelengths and exciting the photoreceptors of the retina most
sensitive to red.

• Light perceived as white is a mixture of all wavelengths, and black

is the absence of all light.

• Color vision begins with activation of the photopigments in the cone

photoreceptor cells. Human retinas have three kinds of cones—one
responding optimally at long wavelengths (“L” or “red” cones), one at
medium wavelengths (“M” or “green” cones), and the other stimulated
best at short wavelengths (“S” or “blue” cones).

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Sensitivities of the photopigments in the normal human
retina

(a) Absorption spectra for rods and cones

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Sensitivities of the photopigments in the normal human
retina

(b) Cone cell fatigue: Hold very still and stare at the triangle inside the yellow circle for 30 seconds. Then
shift your gaze to the square and wait for the image to appear around it

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Cone cell fatigue explained:

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Color vision 2

• Although each type of cone is excited most effectively by

light of one particular wavelength, there is actually a range
of wavelengths within which a response will occur.
• Our ability to discriminate color also depends on the
intensity of light striking the retina. In bright conditions, the
differential response of the cones allows for good color
vision. In dim light, only the highly sensitive rods respond.
• Though rods are activated over a range of wavelengths
that overlap with those that activate the cones, there is no
mechanism for distinguishing between frequencies.
Objects that appear vividly colored in bright daylight are
perceived in shades of gray at night.

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Color Blindness

• Several types of defects in color vision result from

mutations in the cone pigments. The most common form
of color blindness, red-green color blindness, is present
mainly in men, affecting 1 out of 12.

• Men with red-green color blindness either lack the red or

the green cone pigments entirely or have them in an
abnormal form. Because of this, the discrimination
between shades of these colors is poor.

• Color blindness results from a recessive mutation in one or

more genes encoding the cone pigments; these genes are
found on the X Chromosome.

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Image used for testing red-green color vision; With normal color
vision, the number 57 is visible; No number is apparent in those
with a red-green defect

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Eye movement 1

• Six skeletal muscles attached to the outside of each

eyeball control its movement. These muscles perform two
basic movements: fast and slow.

• The fast movements, called saccades, are small, jerking

movements that rapidly bring the eye from one fixation
point to another to allow a search of the visual field.

• In addition, saccades move the visual image over the

receptors, thereby preventing adaptation. Saccades also
occur during certain periods of sleep when dreaming
occurs, though these movements are not thought to be
involved in “watching” the visual imagery of dreams.
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Eye Movement 2

• Slow eye movements are involved both in tracking visual

objects as they move through the visual field and during
compensation for movements of the head.

• The control centers for these compensating movements

obtain their information about head movement from the
vestibular system.

• Control systems for the other slow movements of the eyes

require the continuous feedback of visual information
about the moving object.

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Superior view of the muscles that move the eyes to
direct the gaze and provide convergence

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Common diseases of the eye

• Cataract: Opacity/clouding of the lens, due to accumulation of proteins

in the lens tissue; common after 65

• Glaucoma: Cells of retina are damaged due to increased pressure

within the eye; caused by lack of drainage of aqueous humor; major
cause of irreversible blindness

The macula lutea region of the retina is specialized to provide the highest
visual acuity. The fovea centralis, or central depression, is densely packed
with cones, and contains only cones, and no rods.

• Macular degeneration: Impairment of macula lutea results in loss of

vision in the center of the visual field

• The most common form of this disease increases with age, occurring in
approximately 30% of individuals over the age of 75, and referred to as
age-related macular degeneration (A MD).

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