The Role of the Brainstem in the Visual System

The brainstem is the primary area that has the nuclei of most of our cranial nerves. It controls heart rate, like we said, respiratory rate and a whole bunch of different reflexes associated with the head and neck. The optic nerve goes into the thalamus but it's not part of the brainstem. Oculomotor is obviously really important for changing pupil diameter and moving the eyeball.