The visual system

OBJECTIVES
• Describe the various parts of the eye and list the functions of each.
• Describe the organization of the retina.
• Explain how light rays in the environment are brought to a focus on the
retina and the role of accommodation in this process.
• Define hyperopia, myopia and presbyopia.
• Describe the electrical responses produced by rods and cones, and
explain how these responses are produced.
• Describe the electrical responses and function of bipolar, horizontal,
amacrine, and ganglion cells.
• Trace the neural pathways that transmit visual information from the
rods and cones to the visual cortex.
• Describe the responses of cells in the visual cortex and the functional
organization of the dorsal and ventral pathways to the parietal cortex.
• Define and explain dark adaptation and visual acuity.
• Describe the neural pathways involved in color vision.
• Refraction of light
• Refractive index of a transparent substance
• Refraction of light rays at an interface between two media with
different refractive indices

Light rays entering a glass surface perpendicular to the

light rays (A) and a glass surface angulated to the
light rays (B).
Focal Length of a Lens
Formation of an Image by a Convex Lens
Measurement of the Refractive Power
of a Lens—“Diopter”
Electromagnetic Radiation
 What are the 2 properties of light
that influence visual perception?
• 1. Wavelength is associated with our
perception of color.

• 2. Intensity is associated with our perception

of “brightness.”
 The change is greatest in the anterior
surface of the lens

The lens is composed of a strong elastic capsule filled with viscous, proteinaceous,
but transparent fluid. When the lens is in a relaxed state with no tension on its
capsule, it assumes an almost spherical shape, owing mainly to the elastic retraction
of the lens capsule.
• The ciliary muscle is controlled almost entirely by
parasympathetic nerve signals transmitted to the eye
through the third cranial nerve from the third nerve
nucleus in the brain stem.

• Sympathetic stimulation has an additional effect in

relaxing the ciliary muscle, but this effect is so weak that
it plays almost no role in the normal accommodation
mechanism.
• Presbyopia—Loss of Accommodation by the Lens.
As a person grows older, the lens grows larger and thicker and
becomes far less elastic, partly because of progressive denaturation of
the lens proteins. The ability of the lens to change shape decreases
with age.

The power of accommodation decreases from about 14 diopters in a

child to less than 2 diopters by the time a person reaches 45 to 50
years and to essentially 0 diopters at age 70 years. Thereafter, the lens
remains almost totally nonaccommodating, a condition known as
presbyopia .

To see clearly both in the distance and nearby, an older person must
wear bifocal glasses, with the upper segment focused for
far-seeing and the lower segment focused for near-seeing.
Errors of Refraction

Correction of hyperopia with a convex

lens and correction of myopia with a
concave lens, and.
Determination of Distance of
an Object from the Eye
3- Determination of Distance by Moving Parallax.
Fluid System of the Eye
Receptor and Neural
Function of the Retina