How the human eye sees

BETA

artiteacher Rotate the upside-down images to discover how your brain flips what you see.

artiteacher The brain's darkroom

World falls upside down, / hits the retina, / brain turns it around!

artiteacher Cones and the colorful details of day

artiteacher Cones pack into the center of the retina, requiring bright light to resolve fine details and vibrant colors.

artiteacher Rods are highly sensitive photoreceptors that detect shapes and motion in dim light but cannot perceive color.

Fun Fact

Blind spot: Each of your eyes has a blind spot where the optic nerve exits the retina, but your brain seamlessly fills in the missing data.

Glossary

visual cortex (noun)
The region of the cerebral cortex that receives and processes impulses from the optic nerves. In 1981, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel won a Nobel Prize for mapping these visual pathways.

Gossip

Would you prefer superior night vision or ultra-sharp daytime focus?

Quiz

In which specific central area of the human retina are cones most densely packed?

artiteacher Rods and our incredible night vision

Quiz

How many types of color-sensitive cone cells do standard human eyes contain?

artiteacher The retina's high-tech biological film

Quiz

How does the image of the world first land on the human retina before processing?

artiteacher The optic nerve's high-speed data highway

Quiz

Which part of the human brain is primarily responsible for processing visual information?

Quiz

Which photoreceptors in the human retina are responsible for seeing in low light?

Quiz

Approximately how many nerve fibers make up a human optic nerve?

Quiz

Why does every human eye have a natural blind spot?

Quiz

What type of energy do human photoreceptors convert light into for brain transmission?