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Related Concept Videos

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...

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth perception is the ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally. It relies on two types of cues: binocular and monocular. Binocular cues depend on the combination of images from both eyes and how the eyes work together. Since the eyes are in slightly different positions, each eye captures a slightly different image. This disparity between images, known as binocular disparity, helps the brain interpret depth. When the brain compares these images, it determines the distance to an object.

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.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 25, 2025

Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions

Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions

Published on: May 2, 2019

Interactions between rodent visual and spatial systems during navigation.

Aman B Saleem¹, Laura Busse^2,3

¹UCL Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK. aman.saleem@ucl.ac.uk.

Nature Reviews. Neuroscience

|June 28, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Vision and spatial navigation signals interact bidirectionally in the rodent brain. This review explores how these systems influence each other to guide animal survival behaviors.

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Last Updated: Jul 25, 2025

Integrating Visual Psychophysical Assays within a Y-Maze to Isolate the Role that Visual Features Play in Navigational Decisions

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Published on: May 2, 2019

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Utilizing a Reconfigurable Maze System to Enhance the Reproducibility of Spatial Navigation Tests in Rodents

Utilizing a Reconfigurable Maze System to Enhance the Reproducibility of Spatial Navigation Tests in Rodents

Published on: December 2, 2022

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Behavioral Biology
Cognitive Science

Background:

Spatial navigation is crucial for animal survival and relies on internal representations of location, orientation, and distance.
Vision's role in spatial navigation is well-established, but recent findings indicate spatial signals also impact the central visual pathway.
Understanding these interactions is key to deciphering complex behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the bidirectional influences between visual and navigational signals in the rodent brain.
To explore how vision and spatial representations interact.
To examine the integration of visual and navigational systems for spatial assessments.

Main Methods:

Literature review of studies on rodent visuo-spatial behaviors.
Analysis of reciprocal interactions between vision and spatial position representations.
Examination of heading direction modulation by visual and spatial signals.
Investigation of joint visual-navigational system function in distance perception.

Main Results:

Vision and spatial navigation signals exhibit reciprocal interactions in the rodent brain.
Visual information modulates neural responses in the central visual pathway, influencing spatial representations.
Spatial signals, in turn, can affect visual processing related to navigation.
The interplay between visual and navigational systems is essential for assessing object distances.

Conclusions:

The central visual pathway and spatial systems are intricately linked in rodents.
Technological advancements and novel behavioral paradigms are crucial for studying these interactions.
Further research will deepen our understanding of how these systems enable complex behaviors.