RETINA
The fovea is a specialized portion
The afferent visual pathway
begins within the retina
The absence of retinal receptors
over the optic disc creates a
physiologic scotoma (the blind
spot), located + 17° from the fovea
of the macula that appears as a
central retinal depression. At
approximately 1.5 mm in
diameter.
The foveola is a central
depression in the floor of the
fovea, located approximately
4.0 mm temporal and 0.8 mm
inferior to the center of the optic
nerve head.
 Between the outer and inner retinal
layers, the retinal signal starting in the
The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is
rods and cones is processed primarily
in direct contact with the retinal
through the bipolar cells that connect the
photoreceptor cells.
photoreceptors to the retinal ganglion
cells

The glial support cells—Müller cells and

Horizontal, amacrine, and
astrocytes—also affect image processing
interplexiform cells permit signal
and probably play a metabolic role as
processing within the retinal layers.
well.
 There is a variable ratio
This radial arrangement
of photoreceptor cells to Because of the increased
of the axons of the
ganglion cells in different density of ganglion cells
bipolar cells (the Henle
regions of the retina. The centrally,the bipolar cells
layer) is responsible for
ratio is highest in the are oriented radially
fluid accumulation in a
periphery and lowest at within the macula.
star-shaped pattern.
the fovea