Two Possible Visual Functions for Centrifugal Fibres to the Retina

IN a discussion of the possible functions of centrifugal fibres to the retina, Brindley1 suggests that the “difficulty of finding any convincing suggestion of how the centrifugal control of retinal activity postulated could be of sufficient use to an animal to justify the occupation of so much space in the overcrowded optic nerve”, and “the complete lack in the great body of information that we have about human vision of any phenomenon that requires centrifugal control”, both justify a cautious and sceptical attitude towards it.