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Visual System

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...

Vision

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.

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

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.

Parallel Processing

Parallel Processing

The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...

Color Vision

Color Vision

Color perception begins in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. Two main theories explain how colors are seen: the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory. The trichromatic theory, proposed by Thomas Young in 1802 and extended by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1852, suggests that color vision is based on three types of cone receptors in the retina. These cones are sensitive to different but overlapping ranges of wavelengths corresponding to red, blue, and green.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 23, 2026

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Published on: May 12, 2019

Sounds reset rhythms of visual cortex and corresponding human visual perception.

Vincenzo Romei¹, Joachim Gross, Gregor Thut

¹Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, UK. v.romei@ucl.ac.uk

Current Biology : CB

|April 17, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Sound stimuli can reset visual brain rhythms, causing periodic changes in perception. This study demonstrates how auditory input influences visual cortex activity via alpha oscillations, impacting visual processing.

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Last Updated: May 23, 2026

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

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Published on: May 12, 2019

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

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

Published on: December 8, 2023

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensory processing
Brain oscillations

Background:

Sensory events can synchronize brain activity across different modalities.
Visual cortex oscillations, particularly alpha rhythms (8-14 Hz), are well-studied.
The impact of auditory stimuli on visual processing rhythms remains an area of investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the cross-modal influence of sound on visual cortex oscillations.
To determine if auditory stimuli can phase reset occipital alpha oscillations.
To examine the impact of this phase resetting on visual perception and neural activity.

Main Methods:

Presented brief sounds to participants.
Recorded electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity.
Used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to probe visual cortex excitability (phosphene perception).
Analyzed EEG and phosphene perception for periodic patterns phase-locked to auditory stimuli.

Main Results:

Phosphene perception exhibited a ~10 Hz periodic pattern synchronized with the sound.
EEG data revealed a ~10 Hz pattern in occipital cortex reactivity to TMS pulses.
Cross-modal phase-locking of occipitoparietal alpha oscillations was observed.
Visual cortex excitability, reactivity, and EEG phase dynamics were significantly correlated.

Conclusions:

Auditory stimuli can induce cross-modal phase-locking of visual cortex oscillations.
This phenomenon affects perceptual and EEG measures of visual processing cyclically.
Occipital alpha oscillations likely underlie rapid cycling of neural excitability in visual areas.