Neurons in the retina and LGN have receptive fields that consist of a circular central area and a ring around it.

Concentric receptive fields of retinal and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) neurons

- Neurons in the visual cortex require more specific stimulation than neurons of the LGN
- Different groups of neurons here have different receptive fields
- Some respond best to movement, some to lines in a particular orientation, and many others

Complex receptive fields of visual cortex neurons

- 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

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- 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

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

- 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

Brain regions involved in sight

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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