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Accommodation reflex


The accommodation reflex (or accommodation-convergence reflex) is a reflex action of the eye, in response to focusing on a near object, then looking at distant object (and vice versa), comprising coordinated changes in vergence, lens shape and pupil size (accommodation). It is dependent on cranial nerve II (afferent limb of reflex), superior centers (interneuron) and cranial nerve III (efferent limb of reflex). The change in the shape of the lens is controlled by the ciliary muscles inside the eye. Changes in contraction of the ciliary muscles alter the focal distance of the eye, causing nearer or farther images to come into focus on the retina; this process is known as accommodation. The reflex, controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system, involves three responses; pupil accommodation, lens accommodation, and convergence.

A near object (for example, a computer screen) appears large in the field of vision, and the eye receives light from wide angles. When moving focus from a distant to a near object, the eyes converge. The ciliary muscle contracts making the lens more convex, shortening its focal length. The pupil constricts in order to prevent diverging light rays from hitting the periphery of the retina and resulting in a blurred image.

Information from the light on each retina is taken to the occipital lobe via the optic nerve and optic radiation (after a synapse in the lateral geniculate body of the posterior thalamus), where it is interpreted as vision. The peristriate area 19 interprets accommodation, and sends signals via the Edinger-Westphal nucleus and the 3rd cranial nerve to the ciliary muscle, the medial rectus muscle and (via parasympathetic fibres) the sphincter pupillae muscle.


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