Intro | Visual Cortex | Lateral Geniculate Nucleus | Optic Nerve | Retina | Thalamus
Part 1: Image-Mapped Tutorial
Part 2: Matching Self-Test
Part 3: Multiple-Choice Self-Test
As discussed previously in Figures 13 and 14, the Retina supports sensory reception for visual information in the central nervous system. The retina transduces, integrates, compresses, and condenses light energy before sending this information via the Optic Nerve to the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus for the next main stage in processing.
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Separate pathways between the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus process distinct features of the visual world in parallel. Ganglion cells of the retina falls into three categories. The first, X and Y cells, are the larger of the groups. X cells are smaller and located primarily in or near the fovea. X cells have very small receptive fields and are sensitive to small detail and color. Y cells are larger and distributed evenly throughout the retina. Y cells have large receptive fields, are insensitive to color, and are particularly responsive to moving stimuli. It is easy to see based on these characteristics that X-ganglion cells are closely related to cone cells of the retina and Y-ganglion cells are closely related to rod cells of the retina. The less common, W cells are sluggish to respond and little understood.