Vision and Visual Perception

Part 1
Figure 6.34 Human Visual System
Figure 6.3 The Extraocular Muscles,
Which Move the Eyes
 Anatomy of the Visual System
• The Eyes
– Eye Movements
• Vergence Movement– cooperative movement of the
eyes, which ensures that the image of an object falls
on identical portions of both retinas.

• Saccadic Movement– rapid, jerky movement of the

eyes used in scanning a visual scene.

• Pursuit Movement– movement of the eyes make to

maintain an image of a moving object on the fovea.
Anatomy of the Visual System
(Continued)
• Anatomy of the Eye
– Lens
• Ciliary Muscles– control the shape of the lens.
• Accommodation--changes in the thickness of
the lens, accomplished by the ciliary muscles,
that focus images of near or distant object on
the retina.
Figure 6.4 The Human Eye
Anatomy of the Visual System
(Continued)
– Retina
• Neural tissue and photoreceptive cells located on the
inner surface of the posterior portion of the eye.
• Photoreceptors– one of the receptor cells of the retina;
transduces photic energy into electrical potentials.
>>Rod– sensitive to light of low intensity.
>>Cone– maximally sensitive to one of three different
wavelengths of light and hence encodes color vision.
 Fovea
• Fovea– region of the retina that mediates the most
acute vision of birds and higher mammals.
• Color-sensitive cones constitute the only type of
photoreceptor found in the fovea.
• The area of the retina that mediates high visual acuity
is the fovea.
• 25% of the primary visual cortex is devoted to
analyzing inputs from the fovea.
 How do we see? The Visual Pathway
• There are approximately 126 million light receptors in the
human eye.
• We have the ability to detect electromagnetic radiation
between 380 and 760 nm.
 How do we see? The Visual pathway

The axons of the retinal ganglion cells

leave the eyeball at the blind spot.
• Neural signals are carried from the retina
to the Lateral Geniculate Nuclei (in the
thalamus) by the axons of the retinal
ganglion.
 Visual Cortex
• The retinal ganglion cells from the
hemiretinas decussate via the optic
chiasm and travel to the primary visual
cortex.
• The primary visual cortex is also called
the striate cortex and V1.
 Rods and Cones
• Rods and cones are photoreceptors
• Cones are the receptors of the photopic
system , which function only in good lighting.
• The photopigment of rods is rhodopsin
• Rods are more sensitive to light than cones
 Important Principal
• The most important organizational
principal of the retina-geniculate-striate
system is that it is laid out
retinotopically.
• Dobelle, Mladejosky, and Girvin (1974):
stimulated the image of a cross in the optic
chiasm and the subjects saw a cross.
 M and P
• Two parallel channels of communication
run through the Lateral Geniculate
Nucleus (LGN)
• One channel runs through the top 4
layers –Parvocellular (P)
• Another channel runs through the
bottom 2 layers – magnocellular (M)
 The M and P
• Magnocellular (M)
• LARGE CELL BODIES
• The neurons respond best to:
– Movement
– Orientation
– Binocular disparity
– Spatial frequency
– Majority of Inputs come from
the rods
– Good at detecting small
contrasts between light and
dark
• Parvocellular(P)
• Small cell bodies
• These neurons respond best
to :
– Color
– Fine detail
– Stationary or slow moving
objects
– Majority of inputs come from
the cones
– Great in bright light
 The Stimulus
What we see/perceive
• Perceptual Dimensions of Color
– Hue – the dominant wavelength.
– Brightness – intensity.
– Saturation – purity.
Figure 6.2 Color Wavelength and
Saturation
 Seeing Edges
• Illusion that consists of
• Mach Bands light/dark stripes that are
“seen” next to the
boundary between two
regions of an image that
have different lightness
gradients.
• Receptive Fields • Area on the retina from
which a ganglion cell
receive inputs.
 Seeing Edges
• Simple They respond to a line or an
edge that is at a specific
orientation and at a specific
place on the retina.

They continue to respond

• Complex when a line or edge moves
to a different location.

• Hypercomplex In addition to the above they

detect length.
 Seeing in Color
• Photopigments
(red,blue, green) are
located in the lamallae
of rods and cones
• Photopigments contain
molecules that consist
of an opsin and a retinal
• When a photopigment
is exposed to light the
pigment breaks into an
opsin and a retinal.
 Coding of Visual Information
in the Retina
• Colorblindness has a genetic basis and
is the result of a _____________gene
• Achromatopsia is a loss of
___________
• Cerebral achromatopsia-bilateral
damage to the ______________ lobe
Inherited forms of defective
colour vision
• ___________ – an inherited form of defective
color vision in which red and green hues are
confused; “red” cones are filled with “green” cone
opsin.
• ___________ – an inherited form of defective
color vision in which red and green hues are
confused; “green” cones are filled with “red”
opsin.
• __________ – an inherited form of defective color
vision in which hues with short wavelengths are
confused; “blue” cones are either lacking or faulty.
• The human eye is an organ specialized
for the detection of Color _________
• Wavelength is coded in ____, and color
is coded in _____.
 Seeing Depth
• Retinal disparity • The difference in the
• You have two eyes. position of the same
image on the two
• Their movement is retinas is
coordinated and the _________for close
arrangement of your objects than for
eyes allows for you ________objects.
to see ____from • Thus Retinal
____retinal images. disparity contributes
to _____ perception