The primary visual cortex (V1) has a highly structured organization, which was largely uncovered by the research of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel. It represents four main dimensions of visual stimuli:
- Location in the visual field
- Ocular dominance
- Orientation
- Color

Organization of primary visual cortex

- Some retinal ganglion cells are most responsive to movement in a specific direction.
- Neurons in V5 receive these signals that are crucial for movement perception.
- These neurons are near the regions that control eye movements.

Area V5: perception of visual motion

Beyond the Primary Visual Cortex

- The visual cortex has many regions that process visual information
- Most visual information passes through the primary visual cortex, or area V1 or Brodmann area 17
- There are many other areas of the visual cortex that have important roles in vision

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- How the eye functions
- Neural signals to the brain regions
- Receptive fields
- Brain regions involved in sight
- Vision impairment and blindness
- Visual illusions

Topics in Vision

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

Bear, M. F., Connors, B. W., & Paradiso, M. A. (2016). Neuroscience: Exploring the brain. Wolters Kluwer. 

Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain

As the primary sensory organ for vision, the eye captures and transmits light waves from the environment. These waves initiate the process of sight by entering through the pupil after passing across the cornea.

How the eye functions

Many different conditions can cause visual impairment or blindness. 

Vision impairment and blindness

- Visual information is first processed by cells in the retina 
    - photoreceptors, bipolar cells, ganglion cells, horizontal cells, and amacrine cells
- Axons of ganglion cells make up the optic nerve, which transmits this visual information to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and the superior colliculus of the brain
- Neurons of the LGN synapse on the primary visual cortex, in the occipital lobe

Neural signals from the eye to the brain

Brain regions involved in sight

- Sensory stimulus region and features that elicit a neuronal response
- Provides information about the function of a cell
- Neurons at different levels of the visual systems have different receptive fields, and therefore, different functions in vision

Receptive fields of visual system

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel were neurophysiologists whose groundbreaking research on the visual system earned them the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Over two decades of collaboration, they made fundamental discoveries about how the brain processes visual information, particularly regarding the neurology of perception.

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