Chapter 6

Vision
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 Light
We see visible light, a narrow band of the spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation
Three dimensions of light important for vision
– Hue: wavelength of light
– Brightness: intensity of light
– Saturation: relative purity of light
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 The Eye
First some terms:
Sensation: act of detecting an external stimulus
Perception: organization and interpretation of sensations
Transduction: Act of changing an external stimulus (energy) into
neural signals
For vision, photoreceptors (specialized neurons) change light
energy into neural signals.
 The Eye
Anatomy
 The Eye
Anatomy
Cornea: outer transparent layer (bends light)
Iris: the color of your eye (pigmented muscles)
Pupil: Opening in iris that allows light into eye
Lens: focuses light (image) onto retina (lens accommodation)
Vitreous Humor: large fluid filled area behind lens
Retina: Back of eye, contains three cell layers (including
photoreceptors)
- Fovea: center of retina, rich in cones, best visual acuity
(detailed vision when looking straight ahead)
- Optic Disk: “Blind Spot”
 The Eye
Anatomy
 The Eye
Anatomy
Thank God for eyelids…
Six extraocular muscles control
eye movements
 The Eye
Layers of the Retina
 The Eye
Layers of the Retina

Also contains horizontal cells and amacrine cells transmit signals parallel to retina.
 The Eye
Photoreceptors:

Cones Rods
Most prevalent in the fovea Most prevalent in the
(6 million) peripheral retina, not found in
the fovea (120 million)
Require moderate to high Sensitive to low levels of light
levels of light (day vision) (night vision)
Provide information about Provide only monochromatic
hue (color vision) information
Provide excellent acuity Provide poor acuity
 The Eye
Rods and Cones:
- Specialized neurons
- Contain chemical
(photopigments) that react
with light
- Respond to light at different
wavelengths
- Release neurotransmitter
(glutamate) onto bipolar
cells*
- *Effect depend on type of
bipolar cells
 The Eye
ON and OFF Bipolar cells:
- Light causes photoreceptor membranes to hyperpolarize
causing less glutamate to be released onto bipolar cells
- ON Bipolar cells become depolarized (with less glutamate
from photoreceptors) and in turn release glutamate onto
ganglion cells (which generate action potentials)
- OFF Bipolar cells do opposite
 The Eye
Transduction (bit complicated):
ON Bipolar cell
Photoreceptor Transduction (FYI)
Figure 3 Visual signals in the first- and
the second-order neurons in the
retina. (A) A representative visual
signal in photoreceptors.
Photoreceptors hyperpolarize when
illuminated and depolarize at light
offset. The bar color indicates the
timing of dark (black) and light (yellow)
stimuli. (B) An OFF bipolar cell
hyperpolarizes when illuminated. The
signal is transferred from
photoreceptors via ionotropic
glutamate receptors (light blue) and
the sign of the signal is preserved. (C)
An ON bipolar cell depolarizes when
illuminated. The signal is transferred
from photoreceptors through
metabotropic glutamate receptors
(mGluR6, green) and the sign of the
signal is inverted.
 Photoreceptor Transduction (FYI)

Photoreceptor ON Bipolar cell Ganglion cell

• Hyperpolarize • Metabotropic • Increased

• Release less glutamate firing rate
glutamate receptor
• Depolarize
• Release more
glutamate

In Light Photoreceptor OFF Bipolar cell Ganglion cell

• Hyperpolarize • Ionotropic • Decreased

• Release less glutamate firing rate
glutamate receptor
• Depolarize
less
• Release less
glutamate
 Photoreceptor Transduction (FYI)

Photoreceptor ON Bipolar cell Ganglion cell

• Depolarize • Metabotropic • Decreased

In Dark • Release more glutamate firing rate
glutamate receptor
• Hyperpolarize
• Release less
glutamate

Photoreceptor OFF Bipolar cell Ganglion cell

• Depolarize • Ionotropic • Increased

• Release more glutamate firing rate
glutamate receptor
• Depolarize
more
• Release more
glutamate
 The Eye
Receptive Fields:
- Place in the visual field that a
cell responds to
- Receptive field for cones in
fovea is the fixation point of
visual field (what you are
looking at directly)
- Receptive field for rods is off to
the sides of visual field
- And: Receptive Field for cones
is smaller, hence better acuity!
R
CC
 The Eye
Receptive Fields and Acuity:
 The Eye
Receptive fields
- Effects on cell (ganglion cell)
depend on the region of the
receptive field being
stimulated
- “Center” and “Surround” of
receptive field have opposite
effects
- Center may stimulate a cell,
but surround may inhibit it
(or vice versa)
- ON and OFF ganglion cells
 The Eye
Receptive fields
- ON and OFF ganglion cells
 The Eye
Receptive fields
- Note: there are also differences in the length of
response to a stimulus.
- ON and OFF ganglion cells have a sustained
response (effects last as long as the stimulus
remains present)
- Others, show a transient change when the stimulus
is presented or removed, called ON/OFF ganglion
cells
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 Visual Pathways
Visual Pathways:
- Optic Nerves comprised of axons from ganglion cells
- Lateral retinas project to same side of brain (ipsilateral)
- Medial (nasal) retinas project to contralateral brain
- Two optic nerves converge at the optic chiasm (near
hypothalamus)
- Continue to lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus
- Then to primary visual cortex (also called V1 or “striate”
cortex) and further to visual association cortex (V2 or “extra-
striate” cortex)
- And beyond (V4, V5, etc.)
 Visual Pathways
Visual Pathways:
- Note: visual fields of both eyes overlap (important for
binocular vision)
- But, information from left visual field goes to right side of
brain and vice versa for right visual field.
 Visual Pathways
Lateral Geniculate Nucleus:
- Six Layers of Neurons
- Layers 1, 4, and 6 receive input from
contralateral eye
- Layers 2, 3, and 5 receive input from ipsilateral
eye
- Three functional systems analyze different types
of visual information:
- Magnocellular layers: two inner layers (1 & 2) Movement
- Parvocellular layers: four outer layers (3-6)
- Koniocellular sublayer: beneath other two Color/form
types
 Visual Pathways
Lateral Geniculate Nucleus:
- Six Layers of Neurons
 Visual Pathways
Striate Cortex:
- Primary visual cortex (V1)
- Highly Organized:
- 6 layers (with subdivision)
- Modular (2500), each with 150,000 neurons
- Blobs (and interblob regions)
- First cortical region involved in combining
visual information from several sources from
LGN
- e.g., Cells respond to “features” of light
stimuli (not just dots of light) that are larger
than receptive field of a single ganglion cells
- Projects to extrastriate cortex (V2)
 Visual Pathways
Striate Cortex:
- Primary visual cortex (V1)
projects to various striped
regions of extrastriate
cortex (V2) Ventral Stream Dorsal Stream

Color Form Movement

 Visual Pathways
Pathways of Extrastriate
Cortex:
- Dorsal stream
- Processes where
object is located;
speed and direction of
movement
- Ventral stream
- Processes what an
object is and its colors
 Visual Pathways
Other Retinal Pathways:
- Fibers from retina also make up several other
pathways
- For example: Retinotectal Tract projects to the
superior colliculus in the tectum
- Guides unconscious functions (alert reflexes)

Blindsight: Despite damage to cortical regions

person may be able to interact with object they can’t
consciously “see”

Blindsight patient
Simulating Blindsight
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 Perceiving Color
Role of Cones:
- Three types of cones
- Blue, Green, Red
- Respond to different
ranges of light
wavelengths (different
photopigments)
 Perceiving Color
Role of Cones:
- Color blindness due to
deficiencies in
photopigments
- Red-Green deficiencies
more common (in males)
- e.g., Red cone contains
green photopigments
(can’t see red)
- Blue deficiencies less
common
 Perceiving Color
Role of Ganglion cells:
- Retinal ganglion cells use
an opponent-color system
- Neurons respond to
opposing pairs of primary
colors
- Retina contains two kinds
of color-sensitive ganglion
cells: red-green and
yellow-blue
- Other ganglion cells are
black-and-white detectors
 Perceiving Color
Role of Ganglion cells:
- Ganglion cells use an opponent-color system
 Perceiving Color
Role of Striate and
Extrastriate Cortex:
- As before, striate cortex
receives inputs from LGN
- Specifically:
- Parvocellular system
contains information
from Red-Green cones
- Koniocellular from Blue
cones

From parvocellular
and koniocellular layers
Of LGN
 Perceiving Color
Role of Cortex:
Ventral Stream (inferior temporal lobe)
processes color information
 Perceiving Color
Ventral Stream:
- V4: Adds (RGYB) color information
to form advanced color
perceptions.
- Responsible for color constancy
- Inferior Temporal lobe (V8): has
“globs” that process color
perceptions (fMRI)
- And, damage to this area can
produce cortical color blindness,
called cerebral achromatopsia
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 Perceiving Form
Ventral Stream (extrastriate):
• As before (recall), striate cortex
responds to specific shapes
• Also responds to spatial frequency
(areas of high-low contrast)
 Perceiving Form
Ventral Stream:
• Primates recognize visual patterns
in inferior temporal cortex, ventral
part of temporal lobe
• Recognize categories of objects,
especially: faces, body parts,
scenes
• Visual Agnosia
– Caused by damage to
extrastriate cortex
– Unable to identify common
items by sight, although visual
acuity remains
 Perceiving Form
Ventral Stream:
• Faces
• Fusiform face area (FFA) devoted
to facial recognition
• Prosopagnosia is common
symptom/type of visual agnosia;
inability to recognize face of
someone you know.
• Note: face recognition increases
with age and, development of FFA
is altered in people with autism
spectrum disorder and Williams
syndrome
 Perceiving Form
Ventral Stream:

Depending on damage, may be

able to identify objects, but not
the face
 Perceiving Form
Ventral Stream:
• Body Parts
• Extrastriate Body Area responds to
body parts.
• Damage produces inability to
recognize body parts
 Perceiving Form
Ventral Stream:
• Scenes of places
• Parahippocampal place area (PPA)
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 Perceiving Distance
Depth perception:
• Essential for perceiving location of
objects in the visual field
• Enables accuracy in directing
movements toward objects (limbs)
• Monocular vision: based on
pictorial cues provide some depth
information
 Perceiving Distance
Depth perception
• Binocular vision: vivid perception
of depth through process of
stereopsis, based on retinal
disparity
• Most cells in occipital cortex are
binocular: respond to stimuli in
both eyes
• Cells from magnocellular layer of
LGN respond greatest to retinal
disparity
• Project via the Dorsal Stream to the
Posterior Parietal lobe
 Perceiving Distance
Depth perception
• Flat Vision (loss of stereopsis) results
from damage to the posterior
parietal lobe (dorsal stream)
• Left with monocular vision
• Also results in loss of ability to guide
movements of limbs (e.g., hands and
fingers) towards objects (and
grasping, etc.)
 Topics
Light
The Eye
Visual Pathways
Perceiving Color
Perceiving Form
Perceiving Distance
Perceiving Orientation and Movement
 Perceiving Orientation and Movement
Striate Cortex
– Most neurons in the striate
cortex are sensitive to
orientation
– Cells will respond only when a
line is in a particular position
(vertical, horizontal)
 Perceiving Orientation and Movement
Extrastriate Cortex
• Area V5 of the extrastriate cortex
(area MT, for medial temporal)
contains neurons that respond to
movement and damage = akinetopsia
• Receives input directly from striate
cortex
• Also receives input from superior
colliculus
• Area MST (medial superior temporal)
receives information about movement
from V5
• Helps analyze optic flow and form
from motion…
 Perceiving Orientation and Movement
Extratriate Cortex
• An example of the stimuli used
in research to study form from
motion.