Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Vision01:24

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.
The Retina01:32

The Retina

The retina is a layer of nervous tissue at the back of the eye that transduces light into neural signals. This process, called phototransduction, is carried out by rod and cone photoreceptor cells in the back of the retina.
Anatomy of the Eyeball01:20

Anatomy of the Eyeball

The eye is a spherical, hollow structure composed of three tissue layers. The outer layer — the fibrous tunic, comprises the sclera — a white structure — and the cornea, which is transparent. The sclera encompasses some of the ocular surface, most of which is not visible. However, the 'white of the eye' is distinctively visible in humans compared to other species. The cornea, a clear covering at the front of the eye, enables light penetration. The eye's middle layer, the vascular tunic,...
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
Visual System01:26

Visual System

Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways01:22

Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways

At the molecular level, visual signals trigger transformations in photopigment molecules, resulting in changes in the photoreceptor cell's membrane potential. The photon's energy level is denoted by its wavelength, with each specific wavelength of visible light associated with a distinct color. The spectral range of visible light, classified as electromagnetic radiation, spans from 380 to 720 nm. Electromagnetic radiation wavelengths exceeding 720 nm fall under the infrared category, whereas...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Ecological effects of face mask exposure on soil microbial community assembly: Shifts driven by abundant taxa and stability maintained by rare taxa.

Ecotoxicology and environmental safety·2026
Same author

Hypoxia Associated Integration of Epigenetic, Metabolic, and Immune Biomarkers in Blood and Urine for Early Colorectal Cancer Detection: A Multimarker Panel.

Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)·2026
Same author

Higher-order thalamic bursts are drivers of attention control.

Neuron·2026
Same author

Transcriptome Sequencing Identified Hub Pathogenic Chemokines In Atherosclerotic Plaques.

Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE·2026
Same author

Mammalian Brains Seen through the Lens of Evolution.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same author

The Health and Environmental Impacts, Safety, and Affordability of the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet: A Multidisciplinary Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.)·2026
Same journal

Treadmill exercise rescues motor deficits in parkinsonian mice by modulating striatal D2-MSN activity: evidence from calcium imaging and chemogenetics.

Frontiers in systems neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Transfer learning for EEG-based BCIs: a comparative evaluation and optimization of data alignment methods.

Frontiers in systems neuroscience·2026
Same journal

The volatile anesthetic isoflurane causes global suppression of neuronal activity, disrupting hub neuron function in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>.

Frontiers in systems neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Associative emotional memory encoding: insights from network stability analysis of an fMRI-driven bilinear dynamics.

Frontiers in systems neuroscience·2026
Same journal

The neurobiological basis of the awe experience in affective disorders: an exploratory EEG study.

Frontiers in systems neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Exploring the spiking neural autoencoder: from hyperexcitability to noise-driven compensation.

Frontiers in systems neuroscience·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision
05:07

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Published on: June 13, 2019

Retinal oscillations carry visual information to cortex.

Kilian Koepsell1, Xin Wang, Vishal Vaingankar

  • 1Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of California Berkeley CA, USA.

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
|May 1, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Retinal oscillations transmit visual information to the brain via thalamic relay cells. This study reveals two information channels: one uses firing rate for local details, another uses spike timing relative to retinal oscillations for global scene features.

Keywords:
LGNnatural stimulioscillationsretinavisual coding

More Related Videos

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation
07:11

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation

Published on: December 8, 2023

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision
05:07

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Published on: June 13, 2019

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation
07:11

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation

Published on: December 8, 2023

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Sensory Processing

Background:

  • Thalamic relay cells transmit visual information from the retina to the cortex.
  • Neural information coding is typically assessed by spike timing precision relative to stimuli.
  • Intrinsic neural dynamics, like network oscillations, also influence neural activity patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether retinal oscillations contribute to information transmission to downstream thalamic neurons.
  • To analyze the role of retinal oscillations in encoding visual information in thalamic relay cells.

Main Methods:

  • Whole-cell recordings from thalamic relay cells to capture retinal inputs (EPSPs) and thalamic outputs (spikes).
  • Information theory analysis applied to recorded neural events.
  • Analysis of spike trains in relation to stimulus and retinal oscillations.

Main Results:

  • Thalamic spike trains function as two multiplexed information channels.
  • A low-frequency channel (<30 Hz) encodes stimulus-related firing rate, conveying information about local visual field changes.
  • A gamma-frequency channel (40-80 Hz) encodes spike timing relative to retinal oscillations, transmitting information about global visual scene features.

Conclusions:

  • Spike timing relative to retinal oscillations can convey significant visual information, sometimes exceeding that of the firing rate channel.
  • Retinal oscillations, involving widespread retinal networks, likely facilitate the transmission of global visual scene information.
  • This suggests a dual-channel coding strategy in the thalamus for visual information processing.