Chapter 6

Where does the optic nerve start and where does it end?

What is "lazy eye" and how can it be treated?

If someone electrically stimulated the receptors in your ear, how would you perceive it?

What makes the blind spot of the retina blind?

You sometimes find that you can see a faint star on a dark night better if you look slightly to the side of the star instead of straight at it. Why?

If you found a species with a high ratio of cones to rods in its retina, what would you predict about its way of life?

As we progress from bipolar cells to ganglion cells to later cells in the visual system, are receptive fields ordinarily larger, smaller, or the same size? Why?

Suppose a bipolar cell received excitatory input from medium-wavelength cones and inhibitory input from all three kinds of cones. When it is highly excited, what color would one see? When it is inhibited, what color perception would result?

What are the differences between the magnocellular and parvocellular systems?

When a television set is off, its screen appears gray. When you watch a program, parts of the screen appear black, even though more light is actually showing on the screen than when the set was off and the screen appeared gray. What accounts for the black perception?

What is an example of an "unconscious" visually guided behavior?

Suppose someone can describe an object in detail but stumbles and fumbles when trying to walk toward it and pick it up. Which path is probably damaged, the dorsal path or the ventral path?

What is prosopagnosia and what does its existence tell us about separate shape recognition systems in the visual cortex?

Why is it useful to suppress activity in the visual cortex during saccadic eye movements?