Psychology - Receptive Fields and the Visual System

What is transduction?

Converting environmental energy into electrical signals or nerve impulses

What is transmission?

When signals are sent from receptors to sensory neurons and from sensory neurons to the brain

What is processing?

Occurs as a result of interactions among neurons

Neurons talking to each other

What is a receptive field?

• The area on the receptor surface (the retina for vision), that when stimulated, affects the firing of that neuron

• Elicits a response or causes that neuron to fire (patch of skin)

• The region of the retina that must receive illumination in order to obtain a response in any given fiber

Convergence in rods vs cones

• Rods - more convergence

  • Convergence can increase the chance of a response, but at the expense of resolution

• Cones - less convergence

  • More resolution, two separate signals

What is convergence?

• When many cells synapse onto a single neuron

• Increase light sensitivity and decrease spatial resolution of rod cells

What are center-surround receptive fields?