Recent advances in the understanding of vision

Abstract

Better understanding of vision is the goal of workers in many branches of science and medicine, from neurochemistry to cybernetics. But, although they study the system or measure vision daily, all may not be able to fully comprehend the visual process from their single perspective or by reading within their own discipline. This review surveys a large part of the broad subject of ‘How we see’ from several levels of understanding: (1) Component and circuit analysis of the system; (2) mechanisms and (3) algorithms of the visual process; and (4) computational theory of vision. It attempts to bring together and occasionally synthesize the results of research in many areas over the past several decades. The references will lead workers in one branch of research efficiently into the work of other branches. The survey can provide important perspectives for clinicians; a background that is desirable because the complexity of vision requires that a large part of the central nervous system be devoted to processing and integrating the visual image.

Key Words:

• vision
• visual system
• eye
• visual physiology
• visual psychophysics