Panum area
If one fixes objects or points with both eyes , these are mapped onto so-called corresponding areas of our retina in order to avoid double vision. The totality of these points in the outer space form an ellipse-like line (or curved surface), which is called a horopter . It has been established through experiments that points or objects that are up to a certain distance in front of or behind the horopter are also not seen twice, although they are no longer displayed on corresponding retinal locations. This sector has Panumbereich : (also Panumraum called), after its discoverer, the Danish physiologist Peter Panum .
With Panum's area is now referred to the rear projection of the Panumbereichs on the retina, which forms so quasi within the eye the counterpart of the Panumbereichs in the outdoor space. The fact that object points in the Panum area are not seen twice leads to a transversely disparate depth perception in binocular single vision , which is called stereopsis or spatial vision .
The size of the panum area increases towards the side and decreases in the center. Its extent, and therefore that of the Panum area, within which object points can still be easily and spatially perceived with both eyes, has physiological limits. When it is exceeded, double images are perceived, the so-called physiological diplopia , whereby objects that are in front of the horopter are localized in a crossed manner and those behind it are localized in a crossed manner, depending on the viewing direction of the relevant retinal points.
literature
- Herbert Kaufmann (Ed.): Strabismus. With the collaboration of Wilfried de Decker et al. Enke, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-432-95391-7 .
