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Visual field processing

Visual processing in our brain helps us understand what we see. The right side of our brain controls the left visual field, and the left side controls the right visual field. This happens through the optic chiasm, where information from our eyes converges before being sent to the brain. Created by Ronald Sahyouni.

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  • piceratops tree style avatar for user Jacob Trimble
    So why is the first ray of light at around bent "AWAY from the normal" (as if the eye's lens' refractive index was LESS than the refractive index of the air), and therefore angles AWAY from the back of the eye, but then the second ray of light bends "TOWARD the normal" (as if the eye's lens' refractive index was GREATER than the refractive index of the air), and therefore angles TOWARD back of the eye?
    (11 votes)
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  • female robot grace style avatar for user Neg
    what if the light rays from the right visual field hit the temporal side of the right eye? would that mean that information will travel to the right hemisphere ?
    (4 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user Garrett Chase
      Yes, information processed on the temporal side travels ipsilateral in the brain. Meaning information will travel to the same side. However, information processed on the nasal side will travel contralateral in the brain. Meaning that information will be processed on the opposite side of the brain.
      (4 votes)
  • male robot donald style avatar for user Alex Uriel Lag
    What about the rest of the pathway ? through the Thalamus then to the occipital lobe I believe ...? It would have been nice of you to finish the "visual processing" story ;) I have know for sure then ;)
    (2 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user mary
    I assume the "eyeballs" represent visual fields. From a neuro/medical standpoint, doesn't the pathway in the optic tract and optic nerve depend on retinal fields as well? In fact, visual fields are inverted and reversed in relation to retinal fields. Optic nerves project posteriorly to form the optic chiasm and continue as the optic tract. Axons from the temporal hemiretinas (nasal visual hemifields) project posteriorly in the IPSILATERAL optic tract (because it's contingent on the retina). The video shows axons (or information) going to the contralateral side (passing through the optic tract). Am I confusing axons with light information? Or is there a mistake in this case?
    (4 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Lydia Galvin
    How much visual information from each eye crosses to the opposite hemisphere and why
    (1 vote)
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    • leaf blue style avatar for user dysmnemonic
      Fibres from the inside (nasal) half of each retina cross to the opposite side at the optic chiasm. The result is that information from the right side of the visual field goes to the left side of the brain, and vice versa. This happens because that's how the nerve cells grow.
      (2 votes)
  • piceratops seed style avatar for user veroniquebijou
    Why do defects in the Optic nerve cause full blindness in the same eye (say, Left Optic Nerve defect--> Left eye blindness)? Shouldn't it cause Binasal Hemianopsia instead, since the optic nerve(found on temporal side of eye) defect should prevent transmission of signals from the opposite Nasal visual field? How is the full blindness in one eye explained from a defect in the nerve when it is only supposed to be carrying light from one side of each visuaa field? And what, then, is the cause of Binasal Hemianopsia?
    (1 vote)
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    • leaf blue style avatar for user dysmnemonic
      For this, we need to go over the anatomy of the second cranial nerve (CNII), because it can be a bit confusing at first. It's also important to remember that the visual fields are named for the stimulus is relative to the eye, not for where the light hits the retina: so a stimulus in a temporal field is seen by nasal retina, and vice versa.

      The optic nerve runs from the retina to the optic chiasm, and carries all of the visual information from the ipsilateral (same side) eye. At the optic chiasm, the nerve fibres from the nasal half of the retina (corresponding to the temporal fields) cross to the opposite sides, while the nasal field (i.e., the temporal half of the retina) stays on the same side. After the chiasm, the optic tracts carry visual information from the contralateral fields - so the left optic tract has all of the information from the right visual field.

      From this, we can start predicting field defects based on nerve lesions. If the optic nerve is damaged, then that causes monocular blindness because no information from that eye is reaching the optic chiasm. If the optic tract is damaged, that causes a homonymous hemianopsia - an entire half of the visual field is missing from both eyes. If the optic chiasm is damaged, then the fibres crossing over are most at risk, resulting in a bitemporal hemianopsia - as no information from the nasal retina is getting to the visual cortex.

      A binasal hemianopsia would be uncommon, because it would mean that the nasal fibres crossing in the chiasm were spared while the temporal fibres passing along the outside were damaged - an unlikely (but not impossible!) pattern of damage. It's more likely that a nasal hemianopsia would be from one eye only.
      (2 votes)
  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Amir T
    So this basically creates a mirror image which our brains then flip the right way? Or am I wrong?
    (1 vote)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Faith
    How would vision be affected if one of the eyes were removed/sight was lost in one eye?
    (1 vote)
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  • starky ultimate style avatar for user Guilherme Nunes
    If I close my left eye then the right side of my brain will not recieve any information of what I'm seeing?
    (1 vote)
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  • leafers ultimate style avatar for user Daniel
    He told us which side of the brain the light that hits the side of the eye goes, but where does the light that hits the back of the eye go?
    (1 vote)
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Video transcript

In this video, we're going to talk about visual processing, so how our brain is able to make sense of what we're looking at. So in most of our body, we have the right side of the body being controlled by the left side of the brain and the left side of body is controlled by the right side of the brain. So how does this work in vision? So let's imagine that this rectangle that I drew is our entire visual field. And if these two eyeballs were focused in at the center of this rectangle, so if they were both focusing on this purple line, all they can see are these two colors. So we have a ray of light coming in from the left visual field. It'll hit the eyeball. It'll hit the left eyeball. It'll kind of be bent a little bit by the lens. And it'll hit the right side of this eyeball. And so the inner side of the eyeball-- so this side of the left eyeball and this side of the right eyeball is known as the nasal side because the nose would be right in the middle the eyes. So the nasal side is the side of the eyeball closest to the nose. And then this outside part of the eyeball, which is over here and over here, is known as the temporal side of the eyeball because it's closest to your temples. So this is the side closest to the temples. This is the side closest to the nose. So a ray of light coming from the left visual field will hit the nasal side of the left eye. And a ray of light coming from the left visual field will hit the right eye, be bent a little bit by the lens, and it'll hit the temporal side of the right eye. So let's look at a ray of light coming from the right side of the visual field. A ray of light coming from here would enter the right eye. And it would be bent a little by the lens and hit the nasal side of the right eye. Whereas, a ray of light coming in would hit the left eye, be bent a little, and hit the temporal side of the left eye. So let's look at what happens next. So the eye is basically connected to the brain via the optic nerve. So there is an optic nerve that kind of exits the back of the eye and goes into the brain. So interestingly, the optic nerve from both eyes actually converge. So they actually reach a point where they converge. And this point right here where they converge is known as the optic chiasm. So they kind of converge and then break off again and then move even deeper into the brain. So this point where they converge is known as the optic chiasm, so optic chiasm. Let's look at how this information is transmitted to the brain through the optic chiasm. The retina is lining the back of the eyeball. And we had this yellow ray of light hit the nasal side of the left eye and it hit the temporal side of the right eye. So let's go ahead and trace this information to the brain. So the information will be sent via axons through the back of the eye into the optic nerve. And basically, it'll come in. And what it'll do is it'll actually cross at the optic chiasm and then go this way. And what we also have is this ray of light will come into the back of the eye and it will actually go down the optic nerve. But it's not going to cross. So all light that hits the temporal side of either eyeball does not cross the optic chiasm. So let's go ahead and trace this green ray. So the green ray coming from the temporal side of the left eye is going to exit the back of the eye, go down the optic nerve, and it's just going to stay in place. So it's not going to cross the optic chiasm. Whereas, this ray of light is going to go through the back of the eye and it's going to cross over here. It's going to cross the optic chiasm and go down to the brain. And so what this effectively does is it actually takes the right visual field and allows all the information that's entering the eye from the right visual field to go to the left side of the brain. So this is the left side of the brain. This is the right side of the brain. So like the rest of the body, all the information coming from the right visual field actually goes to the left side of the brain and all the information coming from the left visual field goes to the right side of the brain.