corresponding retinal points
Also called corresponding points, retinal correspondence, normal retinal correspondence, NRC, corresponding retinal elements
Pairs of points, one in each eye, that share a common visual direction: an image falling on either member of the pair is seen in the same place in space. The two foveae are the principal pair, and every other point of one retina has its partner in the other; points on the nasal retina of one eye correspond with points on the temporal retina of the other1,2.
Correspondence is not a strict point-to-point match, because each point corresponds with a small area in the other eye, Panum's area, within which a small disparity still gives single vision and supplies the sense of depth3. In strabismus the cortex can pair the fixating fovea with an off-center point of the deviated eye, which is anomalous retinal correspondence3.
More detail
Under binocular viewing the directions of corresponding points are referred to a single imaginary eye between the two, the cyclopean eye, rather than to each eye separately1. The set of positions in space whose images fall on corresponding points at a given fixation distance is the horopter4. Anomalous correspondence is usually harmonious with the angle of the deviation. Every sensory test rests on this idea: Bagolini striated lenses, the afterimage test and the synoptophore all ask whether the two foveae still share a visual direction, and a mismatch between the measured angle and the angle the patient perceives is the sign of anomalous correspondence1.
Sources (4)
- von Noorden and Campos, Binocular Vision and Ocular Motility, ch. 2
- Kanski, Clinical Ophthalmology (2024), ch. 18
- Pickwell's Binocular Vision Anomalies, glossary
- Adler's Physiology of the Eye, ch. 36
Reviewed October 2026
Related terms
Nearby in the glossary
- convergence
- convergence excess
- convergence insufficiency
- corresponding retinal points
- covariation
- cross fixation
- crowding phenomenon