Interesting paper: Characterization Of Neurite Outgrowth And Ectopic Synaptogenesis In Response To Photoreceptor Dysfunction

Authors Stylianos Michalakis, Karin Schäferhoff, Isabella Spiwoks-Becker, Nawal Zabouri, Susanne Koch, Fred Koch, Michael Bonin, Martin Biel, and Silke Haverkamp have a new paper out that looks at the earliest gene microarray analysis results associated with neurite outgrowth in the degenerate retina.  The title is a overly broad, but the results focusing on gene expression changes …

What Do Whales See?

This beautiful article in The Atlantic by Alexis Madrigal talks about the eyes of cetaceans or whales and has some beautiful imagery from photographer Bryant Austin.  More importantly, the article asks: “So, what does the world look like to a whale?” which is a fundamental question in comparative anatomy. The really unusual thing about this article …

Interesting Paper: Precedence Of The Eye Region In Neural Processing Of Faces

Just seeing an eye… and only the eye is enough to establish the first components of neural facial recognition.  In this interesting paper by Elias B. Issa and James J. DiCarlo, the authors found using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that the first stage in the primate visual/face processing circuitry is tuned …

Silicone Oil In Anterior Chamber

This image shows a slit lamp retro-illumination photograph through dilated pupil revealing silicone oil in anterior chamber following retinal re-attachment surgery.  Silicone oil is a commonly used approach for retinal tamponade during surgery in the vitreous or for retinal reattachment surgery.  While the silicone does assist with successful reattachment, often it causes optical complications resulting …

Interesting Paper: Looking Inside A Trilobite Eye

Trilobites were one of the most successful marine arthropods that lived from the Early Cambrian throughout the Devonian, finally going extinct in the Permian ages, a run of over 270 million years.  They are well represented in the fossil record and even the earliest forms had complex compound eyes much like modern arthropods.  These eyes …

Interesting papers: Light and vision in the deep-sea benthos

Vision in fishes and crustaceans is a fascinating and understudied area.  In past decades, there were far more studies on the visual systems of sea-dwelling creatures, but with the push towards applied or translational research, the number of reports in these species have dropped off, much to our detriment as one never knows where the …

Photonic Crystal Light Collectors In Fish Retina Improve Vision In Turbid Water

Fish have some of the most amazing retinas in the animal kingdom.  Like other fish species that live in environments with little to no light, the elephantnose fish (Gnathonemus petersii) use electrical fields to navigate through dark and murky waters.  However, unlike some of those species, the elephantnose fish has not lost its eyes through evolution …

Notable Paper: Paired-Pulse Plasticity In The Strength and Latency of Light-Evoked Lateral Inhibition to Retinal Bipolar Cell Terminals

I’ve been doing some reading in plasticity recently and found this paperin the Journal of Neuroscience by Evan Vickers, Mean-Hwan Kim, Jozsef Vigh, and Henrique von Gersdorff published last summer that looks at short term plasticity in the Inner Plexiform Layer mediating light adaptation.  Working in goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) retina (an amazing retina), Vickers et. al. used …

Interesting: The Spatial Organization Of Cholinergic Mosaics In The Adult Mouse Retina

This Short Communication published in the European Journal of Neuroscience back in 2000 by Lucia Galli-Resta, Elena Novelli, Maila Volpini and Enrica Strettoi was a paper I did not know existed.  That said, I ran into it the other day looking for some reference material and found it to be quite useful.  This communication represents an analysis of …

Vogt Koyanagi Harada Syndrome (VKH)

This imagery is from a patient with Vogt Koyanagi Harada Syndrome (VKH).  VKH is a presumed autoimmune disease that presents with waxing and waning subretinal fluid.  There is chromic uveitis with other neurological and dermatological symptoms.  The precise mechanism of the disease is unknown, though it is thought that the autoimmune involvement of melanocytes in …