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Eyeretinal layers

Historical note:  In 1847, William Bowman produced an image of retinal layers that was reasonably accurate for his time.

During normal vision, light would come down from the top of this image, passing through most of the retinal layers before reaching the photoreceptor layer just above the thin pigmented epithelium

Note that "inner" and "outer" in the names of layers refer to the eyeball, not to the surface of the retina.  Thus "inner" is upward in this image, while "outer" is downward.

Retinal layers

NOTE: Thickness of retinal layers and the number of nuclei in each layer varies with location across the retinal surface.  To see how the concentration of cells and the resulting thickness of the retina decrease toward the periphery (i.e., with increasing distance from the macula), click here or on thumbnails at right.


For embryological formation of the retina, click on the thumbnail images at left.

 

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Comments and questions: dgking@siu.edu

SIUC / School of Medicine / Anatomy / David King

https://histology.siu.edu/ssb/EE020b.htm
Last updated:  29 July 2023 / dgk