Webvision: The Organization of the Retina and Visual System [Internet]

Excerpt

Understanding the organization of the vertebrate retina has been the goal of many talented visual scientists during the past 100 years. With Cajal's (1892) anatomic descriptions of the cell types that constitute the retina in a number of vertebrate species, and with an early understanding of the role of visual purple in photochemistry in combination with psychophysical studies of adaptation and color vision, we had in the sixties the rudiments of an understanding of how the retina might be organized and functioning.

To go further, though, we were beginning to need detailed information of neural circuits that underlie these functions. It was the advent of electron microscopy, microelectrode recording techniques, and pharmacology that then allowed us an era of very rapid advancement. The purpose of this Electronic Tutorial is to summarize these recent advances and to describe our present understanding, based primarily on anatomic investigations, of the Neural Organization of the Mammalian Retina. As time goes on we have been inviting other authors to write chapters on their speciality concerning the retina or other visual pathways. A great addition has been a section on Psychophysics of Vision which we hope will be of general information to all interested in learning the basics of visual perception.