Question

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” Thoroughly describe the anatomy and physiology of the system that permits you to see your own image in the mirror. From the objective world to the subjectivity of the brain be sure to trace the entire path leading to the pigment epithelium. Elaborate upon the role of the pigment epithelium, photoreceptors and cells within the retina, the optic nerve, and parts of the brain that can determine if you are indeed the fairest one of all. Is perception reality? Or are you a legend in your own mind?

Answer 1

Dear Student,

When you stand in front of the mirror, the image of you will be formed on it.

You can see your image on the mirror by the light that is falling . The visual pathway of the body perceives the light and interprets the image.

I will explain in detail about this visual pathway.

# The light first falls on the cornea , which is a protective covering over pupil and iris .

# Then the light enters the gatekeeper of the eye i.e., Pupils .The pupil is colored and it is present in the center of the eye.

In dim conditions, in order to receive more light, it dilates .

In bright conditions, it shrinks.

# From pupils, the light enters the Lens of the eye. It receives the image and focuses the image upside down on the retina

# Retina : The retina has cones and rods. These are photoreceptors. It also has pigment epithelial layer which acts as a selective barrier.

Cones are used in colored vision and Rods in dim light .

# Optic nerve and brain - Here the image is automatically flipred upside down so that the image becomes upright again.

It's pathway here is Optic nerve -> optic chiasma -optic tract -> lateral geneculate nucleus.

* The left side image is processed by right brain and right side image is processed by left brain.

So, in this way we can confirm you are fairest in this given scenario.

The perception may not be correct all the times because the image formed depends on many surrounding environmental factors like different light saturations in some areas, contrast, etc and also there can be a legend in your mind too which might be partial in judgment based on some prefixed thoughts in mind because our human mind always want to remind that we are beautiful than all others ?

Hope you are clear...

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