Psychobiology

Ch. 6: Vision
Lecture Notes

I. Why we study vision

A. Visual Disorders
1. Stroke and physical damage may lead to disorders related to

central nervous system damage of the visual cortex such as

scotomas, a region of visual field blindness

2. Bindsight, the ability to perceive that a stimulus occurred in a

region of the visual field without the conscious perception of the

region (being blind, but being able to “see”); sees movement but not

object.

a. Arises from the fact that there are 2 pathways from eyes

i. One to thalamus to cortex (allows us to consciously

see) and one to instinctive older part (brainstem—sensing
movement—to detect predators/prey)

a. Blindsight represents survival of older pathway

after destruction of newer one

3. Visual Neglect (inattention)- vision is fine but can’t see half of

visual field (usually due to stroke in right parietal lobe; left side of

world is neglected)

a. Not an active or conscious act

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4. Visual agnosias occur when the brain cannot interpret what it

sees, in other words a stimulus is seen but cannot be correctly

identified. A type of agnosia, prosopagnosia, occurs when a person

cannot recognize faces damage to Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

B. Sensation & Perception

1. Sensation- raw environmental stimuli comes into sense

receptors; process of receiving, translating, & transmitting info

from external & internal environments to brain (detection)

2. Perception- process of selecting, organizing, & interpreting

sensory info into useful mental representations of world

(interpretation)

a. Perceptions are influenced by experiences

a. Perceptual set (priming)- depends on pre-

perceived notion

b. Selective attention-attend to things that are of

interest to us

a. Usually conscious

c. Emotions
2. All sense organs contain special cells called receptors,
which receive & process sensory info from
environment→ respond to distinct stimulus

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 3. Through transduction receptors convert stimulus to

neural impulses which are sent to brain

4. Each sensory modality is specialized to code its stimuli

into unique sets of neural impulses

a. With vision the brain interprets light

5. Since people receive much more info at sensory

receptors than can ever possibly be processed, it is

necessary to select only the info that is important

(sensory reduction) (e.g., when driving the same route,

you don’t pay much attention to your surroundings but

if something changes like the freeway off ramp being

closed, you pay attention to this)

6. Reduction is mainly performed by the reticular

formation, which acts like sensory filter→ filter &

analyzed before going to higher brain centers where

coded info will result in a unique sensation

C. Sensory Systems Interact to Affect Perception

1. Sensory modalities frequently interact with one another and the

sense of vision plays a role in our perception of taste.

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 2. Food color may help us identify a particular food, as well as

features such as ripeness or spoilage.

II. Characteristics of Light

A. The Electromagnetic Spectrum- visible light, or energy we see, is

one form of electromagnetic radiation produced by the sun; moving

waves of energy

1. Human vision responds to a very small portion of the

electromagnetic radiation spectrum between 460 and 750

nanometers (nm—one billionth of meter, 1 millionth of

mm) in wavelength.

2. Electromagnetic radiation can be described in terms of waves

where wavelength is the distance between peaks and

amplitude is the height of the wave.

3. Wavelength is processed as color, and amplitude is processed

as brightness (large are perceived as bright & low as dim).

B. Absorption, Reflection, and Refraction:

The manner in which visible light interacts with an object is

dependent on frequency of light & nature of atoms of object.

1. Most light energy entering the eye has been reflected from
objects in environment

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 2. Light waves are absorbed by some objects (frequency of

light wave matches frequency at which electrons in material

vibrate) and reflected by others (frequency of light waves don’t

match object) thus determining the colors that we perceive.

a. E.g., red sweater→sweater has characteristics that

reflect long wavelengths of visible light (red) & absorb

shorter wavelength

b. Light colored clothes keep is cooler b/c materials

perceived as light colored reflect more electromagnetic
energy; dark clothes keep us warmer b/c absorb more
electromagnetic energy

3. Light waves may also be refracted or bent by molecules in

air (humans) and water (fish)

4. Refraction of light is responsible for many illusions:

a. the shape of an object under water surface is different
from what it is (straw looks bent in glass)

b. Submerged object appears to be nearer surface than it

really is

c. Rainbows-when sun shines onto droplets of water)

d. Mirages- rapid shift in air density-air at one level is a

lot hotter than at adjoining area (hot day, asphalt heats air directly
above it)

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I. The Structure and Functions of the Visual System

A. Protecting the Eye: Eyes enjoy the protection of the bony orbits of

the skull, cushioning fat deposits within the orbit, eyelids, and tears.

B. The Anatomy of the Eye

1. The tough, outer, white covering of the eye is known as the

sclera.

2. Light first enters the eye through the transparent cornea [not

adjustable], which performs the initial bending of the light

towards the retina.

3. Light then travels through the aqueous humor (nourishes

cornea & lens) of the anterior chamber and passes through the

opening of the pupil controlled by the iris (circular muscle that

controls opening of pupil; is really a shutter that can be closed

down to regulate the amount of light entering the eye; color of

eye). After the pupil light travels through the transparent lens

[adjustable], which through accommodation aids in focusing

the image (far or near) as it continues through the vitreous

humor of the vitreous chamber (large inner cavity of eyeball)

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 before reaching the retina (rear surface of the eye, lined with

visual receptors; senses light).

C. Route within the Retina

1) In a sense built inside out

i. Receptors are located on back of eye, which send

messages not toward the brain but to bipolar cells

(neurons located closer to center of eye; process

input from cones & horizontal cells—processing

layer) and bipolar send their messages to ganglion

cells (even closer to center of eye)

ii. Ganglion cells’ axons join one another, loop around

and travel back to the brain forming optic nerve (or

optic tract) exiting back of eye (signal

transmission); have to do with color vision, as they

compare signals from many different cones

1. The point at which the optic nerve leaves

(same point where major blood vessels leave)

is called the “blind spot” b/c there are no

receptors

a. Everyone is blind in part of each eye

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i. Blind spot demo: have students

on blank sheet of paper draw an

“o” and then about 3 inches

apart draw a larger X; close left

eye & focus right eye on the o.

Then move the paper toward &

away noticing what happens to

the X; when paper is about 10

inches away, the X disappears

b/c its image has struck blind

spot. Why isn’t there a gap in

your vision? Next have students

draw an “o” and then about

three inches apart an even

larger X without crossing over;

follow same procedure as above.

About 10 inches away, the gap

disappears—why?

1. This supports the notion

that vision is greatly

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 dependent on the brain—

it fills in the gaps

a. Larger blind spots

due to glaucoma

(disease in which

optic nerve is

damaged, usually

associated with

increased pressure

of fluid; loss of

ganglion cells—

leads to blindness)

iii. Additional cells, amacrine cells, get info from

bipolar cells & send it to other bipolar cells, other

amacrine cells or ganglion cells

1. Amacrine cells are numerous & diverse

a. Functionally, they are responsible for

complex processing of the retinal

image, specifically adjusting image

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 brightness and, by integrating

sequential activation of neurons,

detecting motion &shapes

D. Visual Acuity

1. Rods (about 120 million; respond to low light but not

to color—not useful in bright day light b/c bright light

bleaches them out)-- scotopic vision & Cones (6 million;

operate in bright light & respond to color) affect visual

acuity-- photopic vision

a) Central vision: central portion of retina, especially

fovea, is specialized for acute, detailed vision. Because

blood vessels & ganglion cells are almost absent here &

tight packing of receptors vision is detailed.

i. High density of cones & little if any rods

b) Peripheral vision: light also falls outside of the

fovea; sensitivity to dim light; sensitive to movement;

mostly rods

c) Rods outnumber cones 20 to 1 in human retina,

but ratio is much higher in species that are active at

night

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 2. Both rods & cones contain photopigments

(chemicals that release energy when struck by

light—release intracellular signal- in domino-like

fashion, this leads to a cascade of molecular events

that culminates in an electrical change in the cell

membrane.)

a) Photopigments consist of retinal (a

derivative of vitamin A) bound to proteins

called opsins (modify photopigments’

sensitivity to different wavelengths of

light)— four types of opsin are similar (3

color cones & rods), but the differences

account for their differences in absorption

spectrum

III. Color Vision (Perception)

A. The Trichromatic Theory: we perceive color through relative

rates of response by 3 kinds of cones, each "tuned" to absorb light

from a portion of the spectrum of visible light

1. cones that absorb long-wavelength light (red)

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 2. cones that absorb middle-wavelength light
(green)

3. cones that absorb short-wavelength light (blue)

b. We discriminate among wavelengths by ratio of activity

across the three types of cones

i. E.g., light at 550 nm excites the medium-wavelength

& long-wavelength receptors about equally & short-

wavelength receptor almost not at all→ this ratio of

responses among cones leads to perception of yellow;

when all 3 types of cones are equally active, we see

white or gray

B. The Opponent-Process Theory

a. The trichromatic theory correctly predicted the discovery of

3 different cones, but it’s an incomplete theory

b. Perceive color as paired opposites: red vs. green; yellow vs.

blue; white vs. black (process color as either or messages)

c. We can code colors in pairs but a primary and it’s opposite

cannot be coded …such as a reddish green

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 i. Brain has some mechanism that perceives color on a

continuum from red to green & another from yellow

to blue

ii. 3 channels→ that encode color (wavelength) & one

that encodes intensity

iii. One of the two color channels responds to red or to

green light

a) Here, certain ganglion cells

will fire signals if stimulated

by red light (messages sent

by red cones) and will

decrease firing if they get

signals from green cones;

other ganglion cells do the

opposite

d. After Images support this theory

e. Fatigue caused by making one response, will cause an after

image to occur

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 i. After images: visual sensations that persist after a

stimulus has been removed (Overhead)

1. Prolonged viewing of the red stimulus causes

adaptation in the red-selective cones

2. Like other primary sensory cells, they stop

firing if bombarded for too long with a stimulus

3. When the retina is subsequently exposed to a

white light (reflected from the white or gray

background) the red cones are unable to fire for

a short time, and the ganglion cells connected

to these cones decrease their firing. The green

cones are not fatigued, so the ganglion cells

receiving green light send messages through the

red-green channel, and the brain receives only a

green signal

4. It appears that both theories are correct

C. Color Contrast and Color Constancy

a) The same color may appear to be very different depending

on the context of surrounding colors due to a perception

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 called color contrast. Color contrast is primarily an effect

of the opponency of color processing by the visual system.

b) Color constancy allows colors to look about the same

regardless of the type of light illuminating the object. Can

be due to adaptation-prolonged stimulation reduces

responses of neurons.

c) Visual perception requires a kind of reasoning process,

not just retinal stimulation; we compare it to previous

experiences

D. Color Vision Deficiency (impairment in perceiving color

differences compared to others); complete color blindness—

inability to perceive anything but shades of black & white is

rare (generally genetic, and involve the photoreceptor pigment

genes)

a) Results from missing or abnormal genes for the cone

photopigments.

c) Dichromacy, having only two color photopigments, is the

most common form of color blindness

1. Red-green colorblindness is a sex-linked trait,

with men ten times more likely than women to be

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 dichromats since the genes for the red and green

cone pigments appear on the X chromosome.

1. The very rare blue-yellow

colorblindness is not sex-linked.

c) Monochromacy, having only one or no color

photopigments is a much rarer condition

IV. Transduction by Photoreceptors

A. In general, transduction is the process of converting a physical

stimulus into a biological signal. In vision, photoreceptors

transduce light energy into electrical signals that are sent to brain

for further processing (don’t lead directly to action potentials);

membrane potentials change in response to light stimulation but

membranes contain no voltage-gated channels & can’t produce

spikes

a. Photoreceptors are more positive even when at rest→

inward movement of sodium referred to as dark current

b/c it occurs in the dark, partially depolarizes the

photoreceptor; the photoreceptor releases glutamate upon

second-order neurons in dark; it’s the 'switching off' that

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 activates the next cell and sends an excitatory signal down

the neural pathway

b. When light enters eye, photons are absorbed by rhodopsin

molecules (for rods). (particles that form waves of

electromagnetic energy).

1. Absorption of light causes the photopigment to break

apart

a) When stimulated by light, channels close stopping

dark current & causing photoreceptor cell

membrane to hyperpolorize & stop releasing

glutamate

C. Processing by Retinal Interneurons .

1. Each retinal interneuron has a receptive field defined as the

area of the retina that when stimulated will produce a response,

either excitatory (on) or inhibitory (off), in a particular

interneuron→ a light stimulus must fit within a cell’s receptive

field to influence it’s activity; the cell is “blind” to light falling

outside its receptive field on the retina.

b) For a receptor cell, the receptive field is point in

space from which light strikes the receptor

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 i. Other cells derive their receptive fields from

the pattern of excitatory & inhibitory

connections to them

ii. To find a receptive field, a researcher can

shine a light in various locations while

recording from a neuron

1. If light from a particular spot excites

the neuron, then that location is part of

neuron’s excitatory receptive field. If

it inhibits activity, the location is the

inhibitory receptive field

2. Bipolar and ganglion cells process information about borders

between areas of light and dark due to the organization of their

receptive fields. The bipolar and ganglion receptive fields show

antagonistic center-surround organization→ antagonistic b/c

light falling on the center of receptive field always has opposite

effect of cell’s activity from light falling on surround (center

on, surround off or vice versa), leading to their ability to

respond to edges and borders of light

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 3. The human eye's 1 million ganglion cells integrate the input

from nearly 130 million photoreceptors and send the

information to the brain via action potentials in the optic

nerves.

D. Optic Nerve Connections

1. The axons of the ganglion cells exit the eyes through the optic

disk forming the optic nerves. The optic nerves partially

intersect (in humans) in the optic chiasm such that portions of

the visual field received by both retinas are consolidated in one

location in the central nervous system. The partial crossing over

of the optic nerves results in the left visual field being

consolidated in the right central nervous system, while the right

visual field is consolidated in the left central nervous system.

2. The optic tracts proceed to the lateral geniculate nucleus

(LGN) of the thalamus, with smaller branches connecting with

the hypothalamus supplying light information to regulate

circadian rhythms and superior colliculi (of the midbrain) to

guide the movement of eyes and the head toward newly

detected objects.

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 3. The LGN also receives substantial input from the primary

visual cortex (of the occipital lobe—about 80%- function is

unclear) and the reticular formation (may modify flow of info

to cortex based on arousal & alertness).

E. The Striate Cortex

1. The primary visual cortex, also known as the striate cortex

or V1, is located at the caudal pole of the occipital lobe

2. V1 contains simple cortical cells and complex cells that

participate in the encoding of primary features such as object

shape (simple cortical cells) and movement (complex cells).

3. Sections of cortex show a column organization; respond to

orientation & color.

4. Cortical modules put the characteristics of movement,

orientation & color into coherent images.

F. Visual Analysis Beyond the Striate Cortex

1. Information regarding movement and how to appropriately

interact with stimuli is processed by the dorsal stream, in

which activity flows from the primary visual cortex to areas

Medial Temporal Lobe (responds to movement across large

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 regions) and Medial Superior Temporal Lobe (guided

movments).

2. Information regarding object recognition and categorization is

processed by the ventral stream, in which activity flows from

primary visual cortex to areas Inferior Temporal Lobe

(responds to many shapes & colors), and the fusiform face

area (FFA) of the inferior temporal lobe (responds to faces &

members of learned categories, such as species of birds--

emotional).

a. Abnormalities linked with Autism

II. Visual Perception

A. An alternate approach is to view visual processing as a spatial

frequency analysis or basic mathematical analysis of the contrasts

and frequencies found in the visual field.

A. The Perception of Depth (Eye movements combined with the

motion of objects in the field of vision enable some depth

perception, allowing depth perception with one eye)

1. Depth perception results from monocular (one eye) and

binocular cues (2 eyes).

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 2. Perspective (parallel lines appear to come together at horizon),

texture & shading (highlights & shadows), and relative size

(based one experience) are monocular cues for depth that

require only one eye.

3. Cortical neurons known as disparity-selective cells respond to

the slight differences in the images seen by the two eyes.

4. The activity of these cells produces a sense of retinal

disparity, which is a powerful binocular cue for depth.

III. The Development of the Visual System

A. Babies under a year of age see less fine detail at a distance than

adults due to their immature nervous systems. Infant toys tend to

reflect the ability to perceive high-contrast, colorful objects.

B. Older adults experience loss of visual quality due to increased

farsightedness, as called presbyopia (old sight), slow adaptation to

changes in light, yellowing of the crystalline lens, smaller pupils,

and less selectivity in cortical responses to visual input.

IV. Disorders of the Visual System

A. Cataracts cloud the crystalline lens.

B. Eyeball length irregularities can lead to myopia (nearsightedness),

in the case of an elongated eyeball (image focused by lens falls

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 short of retina), or hyperopia (farsightedness), in the instance of a

shortened eyeball (behind retina), resulting in the lens failing to

accurately project the focused image on the retinal surface.

Irregularities of the cornea can cause distortion of the image

projected on the retina causing astigmatism.

C. Damage to eye or optic nerves could prevent input to normally

functioning visual cortical areas (some vision may be able to be

restored)

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