The Mechanics of Vision

Our eyes are vitally important organs. We use them to learn about our surroundings, look out for hazards and recognize people we know. Today we are going to learn about human eyes by dissecting real cow eyes. Before we get started there are a few basic concepts we need to review about how eyes work. The outside of an eye, the part thats visible when you look at someones face, functions just like a lens. Light from the sun reflects off some object, such as a dog, then the light travels to your eye and is focused by a structure called the Cornea, which acts like a lens in a camera.

Light Rays

Eye

Retina

By the time the image reaches the back of your eye, called the Retina, it has been flipped upside down. Locate the focal point on the diagram above. Remember when we were studying magnifying lenses two weeks ago and saw upside down images if your eye was further than the lens that the focal point? Your retina is like a movie screen that is responsible for capturing the image that comes through your eye. It is made up of black pigments that

capture light. Do you remember what a pigment is? (hint: we used them in to tie dye handkerchiefs) The retina has two kinds of cells: Rods and Cones. Rods can detect light and dark and sense motion and Cones detect color. Rod and Cone cells are connected to the Optic Nerve, which carries the image from your eye to your brain. Even though the image that comes through your eye is upside down, your brain learns to see things right side up. Did you know that babies see images upside down? Its true! Over time, their brains learn how to turn the image right side up so its easier for them to get around. Even adult brains have the ability to flip images right side up. If you wear glasses that appear to flip the world upside down, after three days your eyes will flip the image right side up. Then when you take off the glasses, the world will look like it has been turned on its head. Below is a picture of what the inside of your eye looks like:

Cow Eye Dissection: In this experiment, were going to dissect a real cow eye in order to learn how our own eyes work! Youre going to need the following materials: Sheet of tin foil Scalpel (let your mentor get this since the blade is quite sharp) Cow Eye Scissors Gloves (These are optional. Touching the eye with your bare hands isnt bad for you as long as you make sure to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards, which you should do anyway) The following are step-by-step instruction for how you and your mentor can dissect the cow eye. As you come to different parts of the eye, try to label them on the eye diagram at the end of the handout. 1) After taking a few minutes to examine the cow eye for yourself, use the scissors to cut off the layer of fat that surrounds the eye. What do you think the purpose of this layer of fat is? 2) Now take a closer look at the eye -The Sclera is the white part of the eye that covers most of the outside surface (except for the colored part at the front of the eye) -The Pupil is the black part at the center of the eye. Its a hole that allows light to pass through to the back of your eye. Why does it appear black? 3) Next, make an incision in the Cornea. The cornea focuses most of the light that comes through your eye, while the Lens (which well talk about later), does the fine tuning so that you see everything in perfect focus. -When you cut into the cornea you should see small amounts of black liquid come out. This liquid is called aqueous humor (aqueous means

water-like and humor means liquid). When the cow was alive, this liquid was clear and acted like blood that delivers oxygen and nutrients to the eye. Why cant you have regular red blood in your eye? 4) Now use the scissors to cut off the front part of the eye and separate it from the back part. For the time being, set aside the back part of the eye (with the lens), making sure to keep the gooey part inside. Now lets examine the front part of the eye more closely. - If you look at the back of the cornea you see where the pupil was. Unlike our eyes, which have round pupils, cows and other animals that sleep during the day have slit pupils to keep the light out -the black layer surrounding the outside of the pupil is called the Iris. The iris is a thin muscle that controls how big the pupil is. In cows the iris is black, but people have all different iris colors. The iris is the part of your eye that determines what color your eye is. What color is your iris? -Now lets take a closer look at the cornea. Have your mentor place the cornea on the table and cut through it. Hear the crunching sound? Thats the sound of the knife blade going through the corneas many layers. 5) Lets take a closer look at the back of the eye. -youll see that the Lens is sitting in a pile of gooey stuff called Vitreous Humor (vitreous means thick and humor means liquid). At the back of the eye, the vitreous humor delivers nutrients to the eye, just like blood, and helps the eye keep its round shape -you should also notice that the lens is surrounded by a black ring. The black ring used to be muscles that bend the lens to focus light -remove the lens from the aqueous humor. If its not too cloudy, you should be able to look right through it, just like a magnifying glass! While the cornea focuses most of the light that comes into the eye, the lens does mostly fine-tuning to help you see things in focus. The

lens is like an onions that has many layers. You can take apart these layers and find the hard core at the center. 6) Remove the vitreous humor and lens from the back of the eye and take a closer look at back layer of the eye -notice that the back layer of the eye is made of a shiny white substance. This is called the Tapetum. Since cows often sleep during the day, that means that they are often awake at night. In order to help them detect light rays at night the tapetum serves as a reflector, like on a bicycle, that bounces around light rays so theyre easier to see. If you shine a flashlight into a dog or cats eyes, its their tapetum that makes their eyes seem to glow 7) During the day, a black layer called the Retina completely covers the tapetum. The retina consists of cells called rods (which detect light and dark) and cones (which detect color) that absorb the light coming in through your pupil and send the message to your brain 8) The retina attaches to your brain through a structure called the Optic Nerve. Can you find the optic nerve? The part of your eye where the optic nerve connects is called your Blind Spot. You actually cant detect light that hits your blind spot. So why dont you see a big whole in your field of vision? Its because your brain fills in the gap with a picture of what it thinks is there, which is such a small part of your field of vision that you usually dont notice. -now squeeze the optic nerve on the outside of the eye and notice the white stuff that comes out. This is a layer of fat called myelin. You can think of the eye as an insulated wire that carries electricity. The wire is made of cells that carry the image from the retina to the brain, and the plastic insulation is the layer of fat (myelin) that surrounds those cells. Without the myelin, the visual message travels to your brain at 3 m/s. With the myelin, the message travels at 120 m/s!! This is the difference between a person sprinting versus driving in a super fast race car! All the nerve connections in the optic nerve are very complex. If it gets cut, for some reason, you will permanently lose your vision in that eye

As you and your mentor dissect the cow eye together, try to locate these different parts of the eye: Sclera, Cornea, pupil, iris, aqueous humor, lens, retina, vitreous humor, optic nerve. When youre done with the dissection, label these nine structures on your diagram below:

Clean up: 1) Let your mentor wash off the scalpel with ethanol and put it away 2) Wrap up the cow eye in tin foil and put them both in the waste bucket 3) Wash your area off with water and dry the water with paper towels 4) Wipe down your work area with ethanol

Eye Structure
Cornea

Function

Aqueous Humor

Lens

Pupil and Iris

Retina