The return of Xenophon

Waterfield, Robin

doi:10.5840/tpm20073784

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The phenomenological experience of visual percepts triggered by mechanical indentation of the eye may have inspired the earliest forms of human art (Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1988) and laid the foundation for the earliest known theories of vision and physiology/medicine (Theophrast, 1917; Grüsser and Hagner, 1990; Gross, 1999; Waterfield, 2000; Yang et al, 2011). The physiologos (writer on nature) Alcmaeon of Croton (~450 B.C.)…”

Section: Xx3 Early Theories Of Vision Are Based On Mechanically Indmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The visual extramission theory was refined by Plato (427-347 B.C. ), whose theory, involving complicated interactions between external light and projected light, dominated Western views on vision well into the 18 th century (Waterfield, 2000). Morgagni and Helmholtz suggested that mechanical stimulation of the eye gives rise to visual rather than other (tactile) sensations because of the hard-wired connections to the brain (Gross, 1999; Grüsser and Hagner, 1990), however the physiological mechanism that drives phosphene generation has never been elucidated.…”

Section: Xx3 Early Theories Of Vision Are Based On Mechanically Indmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polymodal Sensory Integration in Retinal Ganglion Cells

Križaj

2015

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

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An animal's ability to perceive the external world is conditioned by its capacity to extract and encode specific features of the visual image. The output of the vertebrate retina is not a simple representation of the 2D visual map generated by photon absorptions in the photoreceptor layer. Rather, spatial, temporal, direction selectivity and color “dimensions” of the original image are distributed in the form of parallel output channels mediated by distinct retinal ganglion cell (RGC) populations. We propose that visual information transmitted to the brain includes additional, light-independent, inputs that reflect the functional states of the retina, anterior eye and the body. These may include the local ion microenvironment, glial metabolism and systemic parameters such as intraocular pressure, temperature and immune activation which act on ion channels that are intrinsic to RGCs. We particularly focus on light-independent mechanical inputs that are associated with physical impact, cell swelling and intraocular pressure as excessive mechanical stimuli lead to the counterintuitive experience of “pressure phosphenes” and/or debilitating blinding disease such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. We point at recently discovered retinal mechanosensitive ion channels as examples through which molecular physiology brings together Greek phenomenology, modern neuroscience and medicine. Thus, RGC output represents a unified picture of the embodied context within which vision takes place.

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Section: Xx3 Early Theories Of Vision Are Based On Mechanically Indmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Xx3 Early Theories Of Vision Are Based On Mechanically Indmentioning

confidence: 99%