Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

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.

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...

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.

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

Anatomy of the Eyeball

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,...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Curvature tuning in areas V2 and V4 of the developing macaque.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Responses of neurons in macaque V4 to object and texture images.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Eye metrics often reflect visual conscious awareness, conscious content, and neural processing in cerebral blindness.

Communications biology·2025

Same author

Emergence of a contrast-invariant representation of naturalistic texture in macaque visual cortex.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025

Same author

Unconditional stability of a recurrent neural circuit implementing divisive normalization.

Advances in neural information processing systems·2025

Same author

Orientation Maps in Mouse Superior Colliculus Explained by Population Model of Non-Orientation Selective Neurons.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 10, 2026

An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles

An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles

Published on: August 25, 2020

Modulation of visual responses by gaze direction in human visual cortex.

Elisha P Merriam¹, Justin L Gardner, J Anthony Movshon

¹Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA. eli@cns.nyu.edu

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|June 14, 2013

Summary

The human brain uses eye position to process visual information in the visual cortex. This study found that eye position influences neural response amplitudes, similar to gain fields observed in monkeys.

More Related Videos

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane

Published on: August 22, 2025

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Published on: October 13, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 10, 2026

An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles

An Emerging Target Paradigm to Evoke Fast Visuomotor Responses on Human Upper Limb Muscles

Published on: August 25, 2020

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane

Published on: August 22, 2025

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Using Eye Movements Recorded in the Visual World Paradigm to Explore the Online Processing of Spoken Language

Published on: October 13, 2018

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Visual Perception
Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

The brain integrates retinal location and gaze direction for object localization.
Monkey studies show eye position modulates visual signal gain via "gain fields," where neurons encode both retinal location and eye position.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if human visual cortex represents both eye position and retinotopic stimulus location.
To determine if gain fields, observed in monkeys, are present in human visual cortex.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure cortical responses to stimuli at different retinal loci and gaze positions.
Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) was employed to decode eye position from spatial patterns of response amplitudes.

Main Results:

Visually evoked responses showed periodicity linked to retinotopic stimulation, with amplitudes modulated by eye position.
Response phases remained consistent across different eye positions.
A decoder successfully identified eye position in five early visual cortical areas based on heterogeneous eye position-dependent activity modulation.

Conclusions:

Human visual cortical areas exhibit gain fields that modulate neural responses based on eye position, similar to findings in non-human primates.
These findings suggest a conserved mechanism for integrating gaze information into visual processing across species.