Description

Weiye Kuang
September 21, 2019

How people see

When we look at something, our eyes take information from the outside sources and

then transmit it to our brain to form the image. In this description, I will show you

how our eyes and brain work in this process.

Figure 1

In order to know how our eyes work, at first, we need to know the parts of our eyes

and what do they do. The Figure 1 shows several parts of our eye, which play

important roles when we see.

Cornea

The cornea is our eye’s front window, where the light come in. The task of it is to

gather and focus the light through it.

Iris

The iris is just like the shutter of the camera. It can enlarge or shrink to control how

much light that enters our eye.

Pupil
The pupil is the hole in the middle of iris, where the light goes through the iris. It

becomes bigger or smaller as the iris enlarges or shrinks.

Lens

Just like what the lens does in a camera, the lens of our eye also can changes its shape

to focus the light onto the retina. It works with cornea to make sure that the image on

the retina as clear as possible.

Retina

The retina, sitting at the back of our eye, contains two kind of nerve cells called rods

and cones because of their shapes. Cones can detect colors and details of the image.

Rods are sensitive to light, can help us see in dim light. The retina receives the light

through the lens and the cells convert the light into electrical impulses.

Optic nerve

The optic nerve transmits the electrical impulses into our brain to build the image.

Figure 2

When we look at the object, the reflected light from the object enter our eyes first

through the cornea. The cornea refracts and bends the light, so that the rays can pass

through the pupil. Then the iris enlarges or shrinks to control the amount of light

enters our eyes. In bright light, the iris shrinks and pupil becomes small. In dull light,
the iris enlarges and pupil becomes bigger. Then, the light rays pass through the lens.

In normal eyes, the lens changes its shape, shortening or lengthening its width, to

bend the light rays, so that the light rays are focused on the retina and form an focused

image on it, which is upside down. After the retina picks up the picture, two kind of

nerve cells, rods and cones, convert the light into electrical impulses. Then these

impulses are sent to our brain by the optic nerve to produce an image. Then, our brain

combines the images from our eyes, and turns the images right side up to help us see

and understand.

For the people who are myopic or hypermetropic, the process is a little different. For

the myopic people, the images are not focused onto the retina, but in front of the

retina. For the hypermetropic people, the images are focused behind the retina. As a

result, the retina can not receive a clear focused image, so that people can not see

clearly.

In conclusion, every part of our eyes and our brain work together to let us see. We

look with our eyes, but see with our brain.

Cited Work

Figure 1:

https://www.mountnittany.org/articles/healthsheets/4009

Figure 2:

https://www.randeye.com/cataract/