Medical research

Eye's recycling process key to seeing color, bright light

As many of us learned in high school science class, the retina's rods and cones allow us to see. Rods are for night vision, and cones operate in bright light and allow us to distinguish colors. But although scientists have ...

Neuroscience

How the retina marches to the beat of its own drum

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Washington report new research that sheds light on how the retina sets its own biological rhythm using a novel light-sensitive pigment, called neuropsin, found in nerve cells ...

Neuroscience

Shapes, lines and movements are in the eye of the beholder

New thinking about how we perceive shapes, lines and movement suggests this information is first deciphered in the retina of the eye, rather than within the brain's visual cortex as previously thought.

Genetics

New color blindness cause identified

A rare eye disorder marked by color blindness, light sensitivity, and other vision problems can result from a newly discovered gene mutation identified by an international research team, including scientists from Columbia ...

Ophthalmology

Team develops novel gene therapy for achromatopsia

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University presented new preclinical data this week that evaluates the efficacy of a gene therapy treatment for achromatopsia, a rare inherited retinal disease ...

Medical research

Why human eyes are wired backwards

The human eye is optimised to have good colour vision at day and high sensitivity at night. But until recently it seemed as if the cells in the retina were wired the wrong way round, with light travelling through a mass of ...

Neuroscience

Breakthrough in the fight against blindness

A team of researchers at the IRCM led by Michel Cayouette, PhD, identified one of the genes responsible for producing a type of cell required for vision. The breakthrough, published in the scientific journal Neuron, could ...

Neuroscience

New technique can help understand neurodegenerative diseases

Cell biologists at Utrecht University have successfully moved selected parts of a neuron to another specific location within the cell. This allows them to accurately study which role the position of a cell component performs ...

Neuroscience

New function for rods in daylight

(Medical Xpress)—Vision – so crucial to human health and well-being – depends on job-sharing by just a few cell types, the rod cells and cone cells, in our retina. Botond Roska and his group have identified a novel ...

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