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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–10Cite as

Human Visual Neurobiology

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Synonyms

Vision science; Visual cognition; Visual processing

Definition

Human visual neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field of study which seeks to understand the processing of visual information by the eye and brain in humans and provides a well-studied model of how sensory systems enable organisms to interact with their environments.

Introduction

Objects in the environment reflect light rays onto the retina which are transduced by photoreceptors into electrochemical impulses, and this information is sent to the occipital lobe for initial computation before being sent to higher-order brain regions for more modular processing. Visual neurons detect where objects are located in space by signaling only when an object in the visual field is presented in a specific position, known as its receptive field. As an example, a neuron in the right primary visual cortex may only signal in response to a black vertical bar but will only do so if it is located in a specific position in the visual...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Des Moines University, Des Moines, IA, USA

    Jordan Haas, Reece Hass & Muhammad A. Spocter

  2. School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa

    Muhammad A. Spocter

  3. Centre for Heath and Cognition, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK

    Alexandra A. de Sousa

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  1. Jordan Haas
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  2. Reece Hass
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  3. Muhammad A. Spocter
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  4. Alexandra A. de Sousa
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Correspondence to Muhammad A. Spocter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Dr. Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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  1. University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

    Russell Jackson

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Haas, J., Hass, R., Spocter, M.A., de Sousa, A.A. (2020). Human Visual Neurobiology. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2768-1

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