What is it?

The truth is, the optic nerve is a direct extension of the brain. The optic cord containts the optic nerve and sheathing tissue surrounding it. For computer game enthusiasts, you know how important a good graphics card is and that they processes a lot of information at high speeds. The fastest ones use the AGP slot and not the PCI slot because the AGP slot can transmit data much faster to the computer than the PCI slot. Anything visual will take a toll on your CPU, or brain. But our brain is so complex it is so much faster than a computer graphics card. Therefore, it is important that the eyes remain near the brain and have an optic cord that is an extension of the brain. Connected behind the eyes, the optic nerve also contains a central artery and vein to give the retina a main source of blood supply.

What does it do?

The brain needs information to process so that you can tell what you are looking at. So all the data collected from the retina are sent to the brain by the optic cord. Interestingly, images that go from the retina to the optic nerve are inverted. Images remains like that until it gets to the brain. The brain translates this inverted image back to the upright position.

Try this test here and find your blind spot. The blind spot is the result of no light receptors at the area where the optic nerve joins the retina. Therefore, no light is picked up there. The optic nerve is actually an extension of the brain, and extends all the way to the back of the brain. You won't notice the blind spot with two eyes open because both eyes help each other out and cancel the blind spot when the brain fuses the two images from both of your eyes together.

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