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SS3 Note Sense Organ 2023

The document provides an overview of the human sense of sight, detailing the structure and function of the eye, including the roles of the sclera, choroid, retina, and other components. It explains how light is processed to form images, the mechanisms of accommodation, and the reflex actions that control pupil size in different lighting conditions. Additionally, it discusses various eye defects and their corrections, such as myopia, hypermetropia, and presbyopia.

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Praise Falaiye
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
10 views14 pages

SS3 Note Sense Organ 2023

The document provides an overview of the human sense of sight, detailing the structure and function of the eye, including the roles of the sclera, choroid, retina, and other components. It explains how light is processed to form images, the mechanisms of accommodation, and the reflex actions that control pupil size in different lighting conditions. Additionally, it discusses various eye defects and their corrections, such as myopia, hypermetropia, and presbyopia.

Uploaded by

Praise Falaiye
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sense of sight

The sense of sight or vision enables us to see our external environment. It provides
the richest and most detailed source of sensory information. It tells things that are
around us, gives their specific locations; and provides three-dimentional images of
them in colour and motion.
Eye: the organ of sight
Each eye is spherical organ known as the eyeball. It is located in a bony socket in the
skull. Only a small portion of the front part of the eyeball can be seen. The part is
protected by an upper and a lower eyelid. Tear glands under the upper eyelid provides
a saline tear fluid made of sodium chloride and hydrogen carbonate.
We blink automatically every two to ten seconds. This action spreads tear fluid over
the eye surfaces cleaning and making them moist. Tear fluid also contains lysosome
which attacks germs. The is attached to the eye sockets by six sets of muscles. These
muscles enable the eye to move in many directions, thus widening the field of vision.
Among these muscle is a single thick nerve, the optic nerve that connect the eye to
the brain.
Structure of the Eye
The wall of the eyeball consists of three layers:
a. The outermost sclera
b. The middle choroid
The Sclera
The sclera is a white tough layer of connective tissue which protects and maintains the shape of
the eyeball.
It bulges out in front to form a transparent cornea. At the back, it is perforated by the optic
nerve. A thin transparent membrane the conjunctiva, lines the inside of the eyelids and covers
the cornea protectively.

The choroid
The choroid consists of black pigmented cells and has a rich supply of blood capillaries. In front,
it forms the muscular ciliary body and the iris Suspensory ligaments from the ciliary body hold
the lens in place. The lens is a transparent, biconvex structure which is flexible. The space in
front of the lens is filled with watery aqueous humour. The much bigger space behind is filled
with the jelly-like vitreous humour which helps to maintain the spherical shape of the
eyeball.The iris is the coloured opaque disc of muscular tissue that lies in front of the lens. The
hole in the centre of the iris is called the pupil. Light enters the eyes through the pupil.

The Retina
The retina is the light-sensitive inside layer at the back of the eyeball. It gets its nourishment
from the capillaries
in the choroid. It contains numerous photoreceptors which are:
1. The rods: These are extremely sensitive to light and are responsible for black and white vision
2. The cones: These are responsible for colour vision. They synapse with bipolar neurones which
synapse with sensory
neurones that are part of the optic nerve
In human eyes, each retina contains about 125 million rods and 7 million cones.
These are spread over the whole retina
Which is concentrated at yellow spot or fovea centralis. This is the most
sensitive part of the retina.
Just below is the blind spot which lacks cone and rods, hence insensitive to light.

Functions of the parts of the mammalian eye


• Sclera: protects the inner structure of the eye.
• Choroid: carries nutrients to the tissues and prevents reflection of images
in the eye
• Retina: where images are formed.
• Pupil: allows entrance of light rays into the eye.
• Iris: controls the amount of light that enters into the eye.
• Ciliary muscles: help the pupil to change its size during focus.
• Lens: receives light and refracts it
• Humors: help in maintaining the shape of the eye.
• Cornea: refracts or bends light rays.
Image formation: How we see
The light rays from an object travels through the cornea and humors. In the
process, the light rays are refracted, with the lens making fine adjustments
so the light is finally brought to focus on the retina, forming a real inverted image.
The rods and cones on the retina are stimulated and messages are relayed to the visual area of the
cerebrum through the optic nerves. The messages are then interpreted by the brain cells which tells us
that the object is upright, gives its colour, distance from the eyes.
Controlling the amount of light
In bright light, more photoreceptors in the retina are stimulated resulting in an
increased flow of nervous impulses to the brain via optic nerves. This causes the brain
to send motor impulses to the muscles in the iris via parasympathethic
nervous system. These impulses induce the circular muscles in the iris to contract and
the radial muscle to relax, making the pupils smaller. Less light enters the eyes but
images at the retina remains the same.
This reflex action is protective as too much light can damage the lens. In dim light,
the brain sends motor impulses via sympatheic nervous system causing the circular
muscles of the iris to relax and the radial muscle to contract.
This dilates the pulpils allowing more light to enter the eyes.

Accomodation
Our eyes can see nearby, as well as far-away objects clearly. This is possible because
we can change the shape of the lens and alters its focal length appropriately to form
a clear image of an object on the retina. This ability is called our eye's power of
accomodation.
The lens is made up of many layers of transparent cells which are soft and flexible. It
is attached to a ring of muscles in the ciliary body by tough thread-like suspensory
ligaments.
i. When we look at far-away object, the ring of muscles in the ciliary body relaxes .
This makes the suspensory ligaments tout so that they pull on the lens. This action
causes the lens to become thinner so that light rays passing through it are bent less
enabling them to focus on retina
ii. When we look at nearby object, the ring of muscle in the ciliary body contracts.
This slackens the suspensory ligaments making the lens to become fatter so that
light rays are bent more to bring it into focus on the retina.
Note: 1.The near point is about 25cm. Any object placed less than the near point
appears blurred because it appears at the
retina
2. The far point is at infinity

Eye defects
• Short sightedness: This is also known as myopia. This condition is caused by
a long eyeball, so that light from distant objects comes to focus before it reaches the
retina. This defect is corrected by wearing diverging or concave lenses which bend
the light rays outwards before it reaches the eye’s own lens.
Long sightedness: This is also called hypermetropia. This condition is caused by a
short ball, so that light from a near object comes to focus after the retina. This
defect is corrected by wearing converging or convex lenses which bend the light rays
inwards before it reaches the eye’s own lens.

Lack of accommodation/old sight: This is also known as presbyopia.


This condition is caused by the lens stiffening losing it ability to change shape or the
slackening of the ciliary muscles that assist the suspensory ligament. It can be
corrected using convex lenses for reading.
Astigmatism: This is an eye defect which occurs due to the uneven surface of the
cornea. Hence, light rays
are not brought to sharp point on the retina. This condition makes images blurred as
only vertical figures are seen clearly.
It is corrected by using cylindrical lenses of uneven curvature.

. Cataract: The lens becomes cloudy and the affected person cannot see clearly.
Correction: Replacement of the affected lens with plastic or providing spectacles with
suitable lens.
. Night blindness: Lack of vitamin A which is used for the production of pigment
protein, Rhodopsin causes the person not to see
properly in dim light.
. Conjunctivitis: This is the imflammation of the conjunctiva caused by bacteria.
Question
EXERCISE: The figure shows a section through the eye.

(a) On the figure, label the ciliary muscle, the iris and the optic nerve. Use
label lines and the words ‘ciliary muscle’, ‘iris’ and ‘optic nerve’.
(b) Describe the function of the retina in the eye.
(c) Explain how and why the size of the pupil changes when a person goes out
The diagram shows the eye of a person in a brightly-lit room.

What happens to distance F and distance G when this person moves


into a dimly-lit room?
Fig. 1.1 shows part of a human eye and three neurones that conduct electrical impulses
between the eye and the brain. These neurones are involved in the pupil reflex.

(i) State the type of neurone identified as A in Fig. 1.1.


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