How Does the Brain Receive Images?
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How the Eye Works
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The human eye functions like a camera. When you look at an object, ambient light such as sunlight reflects off the object and into your eye, where the collection of light translates to an electrical signal your brain can interpret as a stimulus, according to Pasadena Eye Associates. The cornea focuses light through the pupil into your eye. The iris, the colored muscle tissue surrounding the pupil, dilates or constricts to adjust for the amount of light. The light then strikes the retina, which acts like the film of a camera, and reaches your photoreceptor cells before traveling along the optic nerve.
Photoreceptor Cells
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You have two types of photoreceptors on your retina: rods and cones. Cones respond to color and intense light, whereas rods respond to low light. In the dark, the rods pick up dim shapes, and you see things in shades of gray. Cones come in three types: short, medium and long. Short cones respond to blue light, medium to green, and long to red. Different combinations of these three colors produce others such as orange, yellow or violet.
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The Optic Nerve and Occipital Lobe
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When an image strikes your photoreceptor cells on the retina, the retina transfers it to the optic nerve in the form of electrical impulses. The optic nerve runs from your retina to the occipital lobe of the brain. The occipital lobe, situated near the back of the head, contains the two visual cortices, according to the Traumatic Brain Injury Resource Guide (see link below). The occipital lobe connects with your frontal lobe, where you process the signal into information.
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