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Proposal for a Reasonable Model of the Visual System: Principles of Clinical Neurosociology

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Proposal for a Reasonable Model of the Visual System: Principles of Clinical Neurosociology Sociology Study ISSN 2159‐5526, April 2014, Volume 4, Number 4, 360‐383 D doi: 10.17265/2159‐5526/2014.04. 007 DAVID PUBLISHING Proposal for a Reasonable Model of the Visual System: Principles of Clinical Neurosociology Carlos De La Puentea Abstract This paper maintains that when photons enter the pupil and reach the Inner Limiting Membrane (ILM), they are reflected onto a point or centroid of the vitreous body, which could be the lens, to be transmitted by the Müller cells to the Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) hexagonal cells, where an almost complete image is formed in each of them, overlapping with the adjacent images, to be carried subsequently by each of the ganglion cell axons to a place where the single image we are aware of is formed. This process calls for a high degree of control and coordination, which must be effected by the horizontal, amacrine, and interplexiform cells, gap junctions and the feedback provided from the V1 area to the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN). But, as the ILM covers the optic disc but not the fovea, the latter must produce the blind spot and the rays reflected radially from the centroid must have the same centre as the Müller cells in order to be able to channel them to the RPE cells. Keywords Visual system, principles of clinical neurosociology, image, photon Sight is probably one of the most remarkable facts material as well as the immaterial and subjective facts, known. In Darwin’s words: “Can we believe that natural are perceived mainly through vision, study of this selection could produce, (...) an organ so wonderful as system and knowledge of it must be a key subject to the eye?” (Darwin 1859). It may only be surpassed by help us understand how and where the phenomena awareness, both visual and cognitive, life itself and observed are reproduced. Although it seems that we consequently the independent action of living beings, have a good knowledge of how vision works at the based on the information stored in neurons. Studying molecular and cellular level, now we need to know the visual system has the advantage that: what it does and this is the most interesting question for these disciplines: “Now that we have all the The visual system is the most widely studied and perhaps players, the task is to find out what they do (…). It is the best understood mammalian sensory system. Not only clear that a retina that possesses 29 types of amacrine have the details of its anatomical features been well described, but the behavior of it neurons have also been cells has still more tricks up its sleeve” (Masland characterized at many stages of the neural pathway. For this reason, the visual system has also become the system of choice for the study of both sensory coding as well as for aUniversity Complutense Madrid, Spain such higher cognitive processes as memory and attention. (Pasternak, Bisley, and Calkins 2003: 139) Correspondent Author: Carlos De La Puente, Campus de Somosaguas, s/n. 28223, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain As the facts of sociology and neurosociology, the E‐mail: [email protected] De La Puente 361 2001a: 434). structures, such as the cerebellum, play a supporting The definition of the visual system will be dealt role. with in the relevant section as it is an extensive topic The senses provide paths for signals to enter and and here it will be defined the part that can be reach the neurons and (the sense of) sight has been considered as the most important, the eye, the external chosen because it may be considered that generally part through which signals enter. The minimum speaking, and in the social sciences in particular, it is definition one can give for an eye is: “The minimum the path through which most information is perceived. setting for an eye involves a photoreceptor in the As this paper uses the approach of “what it does” but vicinity of shading pigment, which allows the not “how it does it”, the text adopts a functional and detection of the direction of light. A simple eye structural perspective. consists of one photoreceptor and one pigment cell” The sense of sight will be treated as a Vision (Arendt and Wittbrodt 2001: 1545). However, the System (VS) to consider all the elements involved in definition also includes what the eye is for. Below, the forming external images and determining their author will show that the type and number of cells meaning. The VS is a combination of interconnected forming the most complex eyes existing today is tissues and neurons of different types. The elements increasing and the relationship between them is and organs involved in vision are: the eye, the optic becoming more sophisticated. nerve, the optic chiasma, the optic tracts, the lateral In “Fundamentos de Neurosociología” (De La and lower pulvinar, the lateral geniculate nucleus, the Puente 2011), in the thesis “Jerárquica Anidada superior colliculus (SC), the medial geniculate nucleus, Duplicante” and through the “Replicante” hypothesis, visual radiation, and the areas of vision of the cortex, a reasonable model is presented of the working of the in the occipital area (Gray’s Anatomy Plate 2012). nervous system and the defense of both leads to the Reference will also be made to the claustrum. conclusion that information exists and is generated, Each of these in turn has its own tissues and stored, and processed in the genome of the nucleus of neurons and all the parts may be the subject of general each and every neuron, the base pair being the or specialized studies [Examples of general studies: minimum physical unit of storage. This information is (Ramón y Cajal 1904a; Ramón y Cajal 1904b; Guyton generated by the signals that arrive and, at the same 1997; Bear, Connors, and Paradiso 1998; Kandel, location, the information generates the signals that Schwartz, and Jessel 2001; Purves et al. 2004: 261)] produce behavior. Consequently, the information and [Examples of specialized studies: (Ryan and resides only in the genome, and what circulates are the Hinton 2006; Sarthy and Ripps 2001; Reichenbach signals. and Bringmann 2010; Land and Nilsson 2002; White This is how the need for this paper arose. It was and Munoz 2011)]. necessary to examine the paths through which signals From the functional point of view, the VS reach the genome of the neurons to generate represents external reality in a form described by Land information and where they concentrate to reach each and Nilsson (2002: 4) as “spatial vision”. In this of the target neurons, which in this case are those in scheme, reality is represented by the conversion of the cortex and some other structures where photons into electrical stimuli by phototransduction; information can be generated. It should be noted that we appreciate that this external reality is “outside” the in the diencephalon, associated with the emotions, and place where it is perceived and we become aware of it. the mesencephalon, associated with the instincts, no According to generally accepted principles, the more information could be generated, while other images from the exterior we perceive are projected 362 Sociology Study 4(4) onto the retina as if this was a screen and they are gap junctions, would be the level at which signals are inverted (Purves et al. 2004: 264; Ratznium at controlled or coordinated. The “megaconcentration” en.wikipedia 2007). One thus assumes that the would be effected by the cones, the cone bipolars, and external image is represented on the retina as a jigsaw the ganglion cells. puzzle. The position specified in Axiom 2 (De La Puente But, in line with the foregoing explanation (De La 2011: 77) would then be that in the VS the Puente 2011), for the theory to be confirmed, there megaconcentrators or megahubs are the cone, bipolar must be a point at which all the signals are cone, and ganglion cells of the retina. concentrated, so that they can be received by each and The thesis puts forward in this paper is thus every neuron in the cortex. This calls for a supported by a general universal principle of cell “mega-concentrator” that can subsequently transmit uniqueness, which would in turn be founded on cell the signals to all the neurons, a process that would theory and the neuron doctrine, according to which also require different mechanisms to synchronize the cells cooperate but do not share, although they can transmissions and to order them. exchange information by “Horizontal Gene Transfer” The proposal of this paper is that external signals (HGT). perceived are reproduced in each and every one of the The terms cooperate, share, and exchange need to hexagonal cells in the Retinal Pigment Epithelium be differentiated. “Cooperate” is used in the sense that (RPE), although not in a regular or perfect way, cells work with other cells to carry out a task. “Share” reaching them via the Müller cells (Franze et al. 2007). means to divide or distribute something among cells. The photoreceptor cells collect the signals from the “Exchange” is used in the sense of transferring RPE and via the intermediate bipolar cells carry them something between cells. to the retina’s ganglion cells and each of the axons of The position of the thesis is that, each of these ganglion cells, which make up the optic nerve, carries the signals of the complete image to RPE cells form a representational network by means of overlapping repetition of external reality, as each cell each of the neurons in the corresponding part of the represents this reality, which is then carried through the cone cortex, and from there they are distributed to the rest circuit centre and transmitted to its destination by the of the cortex (Gray’s Anatomy Plate 2012).
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