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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Prog Retin Eye Res. 2020 Aug 6;81:100886. doi: 10.1016/j.preteyeres.2020.100886

Figure 1: The structure of the optic nerve A.

Figure 1:

Optic nerve is a white matter tract of the brain that connects the eye (from the optic nerve head end) with the brain. The left and right optic nerves intersect at the chiasm, which is an X-shaped structure that is located in the forebrain, in front of the hypothalamus. B. The optic nerve is composed of myelinated axons of the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) (yellow bundles) and interstitial glial cells (purple stars). Numerous septa of neuroglia, plus elastic and collagenous fibers divide the nerve into sharply defined bundles that are encapsulated by the three meningeal layers of the brain (dura, arachnoid, and pia mater). The main structural element of the optic nerve head is the dense collagenous lamina cribrosa that acts as a pressure barrier between the intraocular and retrobulbar spaces.