NROC64H3 Chapter : lec 10
Document Summary
Light is electromagnetic energy that is emitted in the form of waves. The significance of vision is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that about half of the human cerebral cortex is involved with analyzing the visual world. Retina is found at the back of the eye, which contains photoreceptors specialized to convert light into neural actiivty. Retina is actually the part of the brain. Axons of retinal neurons are bundled into optic nerves, which distribute visual information (in the form of ap) to several brain structure that perform different functions. Some targets of the optic nerves are involved in regulating biological rhtyms, which are synchronized with the light-dark dailty cycle, others are involved in the control of eye postion and optics. The first synaptic relay in the pathway that serves visual perception occurs in a cell group of the dorsal thalamus called the lateral geniculate nucleus, visual information ascends to the cerebral cortex, where it is interpreted and remembered.