Ciliary body
Part of the eye, the ciliary body is a thin vascular (blood vessel-filled) middle layer of the eye that is situated between the sclera (the white of the eye) and the retina (the nerve layer that lines the back of the eye, senses light, and creates impulses that travel through the optic nerve to the brain). The ciliary body is part of the uvea, which also includes the iris (the circular, colored curtain of the eye that surrounds the pupil) and the choroid of the eye, the thin vascular middle layer of the eye situated between the sclera (the white of the eye) and the retina (the nerve layer that lines the back of the eye, senses light, and creates impulses that travel through the optic nerve to the brain).
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ciliary body n an annular structure on the inner surface of the anterior wall of the eyeball composed largely of the ciliary muscle and bearing the ciliary processes
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the part of the
eye that connects the choroid with the iris. It consists of three zones:
the ciliary ring, which adjoins the choroid;
the ciliary processes, a series of about 70 radial ridges behind the iris to which the suspensory ligament of the lens is attached; and
the ciliary muscle, contraction of which alters the curvature of the lens (
see
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corpus ciliare.
Medical dictionary.
2011.