Riggs L A
J Opt Soc Am. 1983 Jun;73(6):736-41. doi: 10.1364/josa.73.000736.
Optics began as a visual science, and the eye was the original optical instrument. Students of physiological optics, together with their clinical colleagues, were concerned mainly with the normal and pathological functioning of the eye as a receptor organ. In recent years, however, exciting developments have changed all that. Optics has taken off in many directions that have little immediate relation to the eye, such as x-ray astronomy, lasers, and photoacoustic spectroscopy. Vision research, in turn, has gone far beyond its sole preoccupation with the optics of the eye. Most exciting are new discoveries about the visual pathways and the specialization of individual brain cells for the processing of line orientation, stereoscopic depth, spatial frequency, motion, and color. Comparative studies reveal the functional architecture of the brain together with the genetically and chemically programmed cellular development that lays the groundwork for later modification by the visual environment. Stimulated by this neurophysiological progress, and by newly available optical concepts and techniques, visual scientists have greatly expanded their research beyond the traditional topics of physiological optics and color.
光学起源于视觉科学，眼睛是最初的光学仪器。生理光学的学生及其临床同行主要关注眼睛作为感受器器官的正常和病理功能。然而，近年来，令人兴奋的发展改变了这一切。光学已朝着许多与眼睛没有直接关系的方向发展，如X射线天文学、激光和光声光谱学。反过来，视觉研究也远远超出了其对眼睛光学的唯一关注。最令人兴奋的是关于视觉通路以及单个脑细胞在处理线条方向、立体深度、空间频率、运动和颜色方面的特化的新发现。比较研究揭示了大脑的功能结构以及为视觉环境的后期修饰奠定基础的基因和化学编程的细胞发育。受这一神经生理学进展以及新出现的光学概念和技术的刺激，视觉科学家大大扩展了他们的研究范围，超越了生理光学和颜色的传统主题。
