The Human Eye

I T S A N AT O M Y A N D F U N C T I O N S
Introduction

When surveyed about the five senses —

sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch —
people consistently report that their eyesight
is the mode of perception they value (and
fear losing) the most. Despite this, many
people don’t have a good understanding of
the anatomy of the eye, how vision works or
the ins and outs of eye health. I would like to
begin my presentation with a bit of
description on each of the compounds of an
eye.
 o The orbit is the bony cavity that contains the eyeball, muscles, nerves, and blood
vessels, as well as the structures that produce and drain tears. Each orbit is a pear-

Anantomy #1 shaped structure that is formed by several bones.

o The outer covering of the eyeball consists of a relatively tough, white layer called
the sclera (or white of the eye).
o Light enters the eye through the cornea, a clear, curved layer in front of the iris
and pupil. The cornea serves as a protective covering for the front of the eye and
helps focus light on the retina at the back of the eye.
o Near the front of the eye, in the area protected by the eyelids, the sclera is covered
by a thin, transparent membrane (conjunctiva), which runs to the edge of the
cornea. The conjunctiva also covers the moist back surface of the eyelids and
eyeballs.
o After passing through the cornea, light travels through the pupil (the black dot in
the middle of the eye).
o The iris - a circular, colored area of the eye that surrounds the pupil - controls the
amount of light that enters the eye.
o Behind the iris sits the lens. By changing its shape, the lens focuse light onto the
retina. Through the action of small muscles (called the ciliary muscles), the lens
becomes thicker to focus on nearby objects and thinner to focus on distant objects.
o The retina contains the cells that sense light and the blood vessels that nourish
them. The most sensitive part of the retina is a small area called the macula, which
has millions of tightly packed photoreceptors. The high density of such receptors
in the macula makes the visual image detailed, just as a high-resolution digital
camera has more megapixels.
Each photoreceptor is linked to a nerve fiber. The nerve fibers from the photoreceptors are bundled
together to form the optic nerve. The optic disc, the first part of the optic nerve, is at the back of the Anatomy #2
eye. The photoreceptors in the retina convert the image into electrical signals, which are carried to the
brain by the optic nerve. There are two main types of photoreceptors: cones and rods.

Cones are responsible for sharp, detailed central vision and color vision and are clustered mainly in
the macula.

Rods are responsible for night and peripheral (side) vision. Rods are more numerous than cones and
much more sensitive to light, but they do not register color or contribute to detailed central vision as
the cones do. Rods are grouped mainly in the peripheral areas of the retina.

The eyeball is divided into two sections, each of which is filled with fluid. The pressure generated by
these fluids fills out the eyeball and helps maintain its shape.

The front section (anterior segment) extends from the inside of the cornea to the front surface of the
lens. It is filled with a fluid called the aqueous humor, which nourishes the internal structures. The
anterior segment is divided into two chambers. The front (anterior) chamber extends from the cornea
to the iris. The back (posterior) chamber extends from the iris to the lens. Normally, the aqueous
humor is produced in the posterior chamber, flows slowly through the pupil into the anterior chamber,
and then drains out of the eyeball through outflow channels located where the iris meets the cornea.

The back section (posterior segment) extends from the back surface of the lens to the retina. It
contains a jellylike fluid called the vitreous humor.
How the eye works
In a number of ways, the human eye works much like a digital camera:

1. Light is focused primarily by the cornea – the clear front surface of the eye, which acts like a camera lens.

2. The iris (colored part) of the eye functions like the diaphragm of a camera, controlling the amount of light
reaching the retina by automatically adjusting the size of the pupil (aperture).

3. The eye’s crystalline lens is located directly behind the pupil and further focuses light rays. Through a process
called accommodation, this lens automatically helps the eye focus on near and approaching objects, like an
autofocus camera lens.

4. Light focused by the cornea and crystalline lens (and limited by the iris and pupil) then reaches the retina – the
light-sensitive inner lining of the back of the eye. The retina acts like an electronic image sensor of a digital
camera, converting optical images into electrical signals. The optic nerve then transmits these signals to the
visual cortex – the part of the brain that controls our sense of sight.

Several muscles working together move the eye, allowing people to look in different directions without moving
their head. Each eye muscle is stimulated by a specific cranial nerve. The optic nerve (a cranial nerve), which
carries impulses from the retina to the brain, as well as other cranial nerves, which transmit impulses to each eye
muscle, travel through the orbit (the bony cavity that surrounds the eyeball). An ophthalmic artery and a central
retinal artery (an artery that branches off of the ophthalmic artery) provide blood to each eye. Similarly,
ophthalmic veins (vortex veins) and a central retinal vein drain blood from the eye. These blood vessels enter and
leave through the back of the eye. For better visualisation please open the link with a video:
https://www.msdmanuals.com/home/multimedia/video/overview-of-the-eyes
Tracing the visual pathways
Nerve signals travel from each eye along the corresponding optic nerve
and other nerve fibers (called the visual pathway) to the back of the
brain, where vision is sensed and interpreted. The two optic nerves
meet at the optic chiasm, which is an area behind the eyes immediately
in front of the pituitary gland and just below the front portion of the
brain (cerebrum). There, the optic nerve from each eye divides, and
half of the nerve fibers from each side cross to the other side and
continue to the back of the brain. Thus, the right side of the brain
receives information through both optic nerves for the left field of
vision, and the left side of the brain receives information through both
optic nerves for the right field of vision. The middle of these fields of
vision overlaps. It is seen by both eyes (called binocular vision).
An object is seen from slightly different angles by each eye so the
information the brain receives from each eye is different, although it
overlaps. The brain integrates the information to produce a complete
picture.
 Eye dilation
Typically, your pupil regulates how much light enters
your eye. It gets smaller when light increases and
opens when light decreases. But the pupil itself doesn’t
grow or shrink—its size is controlled by the muscles in
the iris (the colored part of your eye) that encircles it.
The dilator muscle of the iris is activated by
sympathetic nerve fibres. Stimulation of the
sympathetic nerve in the neck causes a powerful
dilation of the iris. Again, the influx of epinephrine
(adrenalin) into the blood from the adrenal glands
during extreme excitement results in pupillary dilation.
Sight disorders
In contrast to the focusing of the normal (emmetropic) eye, in which the image of the visual field is focused on the retina, the image may be focused in
front of the retina (nearsightedness, or myopia) or behind the retina (farsightedness or hyperopia). In myopia the vision of distant objects is not distinct,
because the image of a distant point falls within the vitreous and the rays spread out to form a blur circle on the retina instead of a point. In this condition,
the eye is said to have dioptric (refractive) power too great for its length. When the focus falls behind the retina, the image of the distant point is again a
circle on the retina, and the farsighted eye is said to have too little dioptric power. The important point to appreciate is that emmetropia, or normal sight,
requires that the focal power of the dioptric system be matched to the axial length of the eye. It certainly is remarkable that emmetropia is indeed the most
common condition when it is appreciated that just one millimetre of error in the matching of axial length with focal length would cause a person to require
a spectacle correction.
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03/17/2024

Thank you for your

attention
T H I S P R E S E N TAT I O N H A S B E E N M A D E B Y

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