PSYC 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Receptive Field, Amacrine Cell, Retina
21 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Retinal processing sensory transduction: photoreceptors: transduce photo/light energy into a neural impulse. Parallel processing begins here at the beginning: rods, cones, spectral relationship between the photo pigments. Photo pigments: the proteins inside the photoreceptor that absorb light and change their shape. Change in shape signals a molecular mechanism that changes the membrane potential of the photoreceptor resulting in neurotransmitter modulation: sensitivity and bleaching different photo pigments have different kinds of sensitivity. This is not a disease, but rather something that is considered a normal feature of the eye. The structure of the fovea the sharpest feature of your vision in the retina that has the same neuro- circuitry as the rest of the retina. The layer of stuff it has to get through to strike the photoreceptors is much thinner. As a result, it can strike the photoreceptors with greater sensitivity/ more force.
