Abstract
The question of why the human eye has two axes, a photopic visual axis, and an eye axis, is just as justified as the one of why the fovea is not on the eye axis, but instead is on the visual axis. An optical engineer would have omitted the second axis and placed the fovea on the eye axis. The answer to the question of why the design of the real eye differs from the logic of the engineer is found in its prenatal development. The biaxial structure was the only possible consequence of the decision to invert the retinal layers. Accordingly, this is of considerable importance. It, in turn, forms the basis of the interpretation of the retina as a cellular 3D phase grating, and can provide a grating-optical interpretation of adaptive effects (Purkinje shift) and aperture phenomena (Stiles-Crawford effects I and II, Bezold-Brücke phenomenon) and visual acuity data in photopic and scotopic vision.
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Lauinger, N. The two axes of the human eye and inversion of the retinal layers: The basis for the interpretation of the retina as a phase grating optical, cellular 3D chip. J Biol Phys 19, 243–257 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00700664
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00700664