Three Prenatal Developments in the Retina Allow for Cortico-Retinal Image Processing in Situ in the Eye

Abstract

Image processing in the retina of the eye has thus far been mainly dealt with analogous to photographic ray optics i. e., imaging lens optics and photodiode arrays. However, it does not offer an answer to the questions that are crucial to human vision: WHAT a visible object invariantly represents conceptually (a house, a tree, etc.), WHERE it is located in relation to other objects in space or which RGB-colors and/or luminosities collaborate locally. For this purpose, ray optics needs to be supplemented by diffractive wave optics, which can be described as Fresnel near-field interference in cellular or spatial gratings. The fact that interference optics plays a decisive role in vision has already been proven by the fact that in binocular vision the image brightness is preserved when closing one eye. However, with the introduction of interference-wave-optics and especially with Fresnel Nearfield interference optics the cortico-retinal image processing now becomes possible in the eye, i.e. in the retina of the peripheral visual organ. Fresnel Nearfield interference optics especially allows multilayer proceeding and a better understanding of hierarchical imaging systems. It clearly becomes apparent in the di- and trichromatic proceeding and by the separation of color proceeding from invariant object form proceeding. Color - as an example - is not produced at the visual objects and also not in the cortex, but in the Fresnel space of the retina.