Briefly describe the path of visual information – from an apple on a tree to conscious perception of an apple.

Briefly describe the path of visual information – from an apple on a tree to conscious perception of an apple.

First of all, light that is reflected from the apple enters the eye and the image is focused onto the retina, the layer of neurons that lines the back of the eye. The important aspect here is that it is an image, because it is the image created by light that gets into the eye, not the apple itself. Hence, it is a representation. This image is then tranformed into eletrical signals, which travel through the retina, leave the eye via the optic nerve, and eventually reach the primary visual receiving area of the brain. Our perception therefore is based not on direct contact with the apple, but on the way it it represented by action potentials in the brain. This process may involve feature detectors that respond to specific features that make up opjects.