1.1 Preface 1 1.2 Design and Structure of the Eye 1 1.3 Optical Aberrations and Consequences for Visual Performance 5 1.4 Chromatic Aberration 9 1.5 Neural Adaptation to Monochromatic Aberrations 12 1.6 Optimizing Retinal Processing with Limited Cell Numbers, Space and Energy 13 1.7 Adaptation to Different Light Levels 13 1.8 Rod and Cone Responses 15 1.9 Spiking and Coding 18 1.10 Temporal and Spatial Performance 19 1.11 ON/OFF Structure, Division of the Whole Illuminance Amplitude in Two Segments 20 1.12 Consequences of the Rod and Cone Diversity on Retinal Wiring 21 1.13 Motion Sensitivity in the Retina 21 1.14 Visual Information Processing in Higher Centers 23 1.14.1 Morphology 23 1.14.2 Functional Aspects – Receptive Field Structures and Cortical Modules 24 1.15 Effects of Attention 26 1.16 Color Vision, Color Constancy, and Color Contrast 27 1.17 Depth Perception 28 1.18 Adaptation in the Visual System to Color, Spatial, and Temporal Contrast 29 1.19 Conclusions 30 References 32