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  1. Astronaut Chris Hadfield Explains How Sight Changes In Space

    I ran across this interesting vignette from Astronaut Cmdr. Hadfield (his Twitter account here) on how sight changes in space including the flattening of eyeballs, swelling around the optic nerve and the random flashes of light seen by astronauts.

    Jun 14, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  2. The Cilium

    With the exception of a few types of cells, (acinar cells, T lymphocytes and hepatocytes), every cell in your body has a cilia.  In the vision community, we are used to seeing these structures in the distal portion of the photoreceptors.  The reality is that every cell in the retina has a cilium and some cells [...]

    Jun 7, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  3. New Webvision Chapter: Evolution of Phototransduction, Vertebrate Photoreceptors and Retina

    After much work by a number of our contributors, not the least of whom is the author of this particular effort, we have a spectacular new addition to Webvision:  A section on the Evolution of Phototransduction, Vertebrate Photoreceptors and Retina by Trevor D. Lamb.  Be sure to check it out and let us know what you [...]

    May 15, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  4. 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 [...]

    Apr 26, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  5. Building Retinal Connectomes

    There has been quite a bit of discussion of connectomes in the last while with President Obama’s new BRAIN initiative.  It is important to consider some of the requirements of obtaining a true synapse level wiring map in the brain as many are articulating from this initiative.  While there are new technologies that will be [...]

    Apr 22, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  6. 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 [...]

    Apr 9, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  7. 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 [...]

    Apr 8, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  8. 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 [...]

    Mar 21, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  9. 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 [...]

    Mar 17, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  10. 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 [...]

    Feb 28, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  11. Makeup Artist Paints Realistic Third Eye, On Her Lips

    Since Webvision is all about eyes, this was kind of a fun image…  Makeup artist Sandra Holmbom is a phenomenal talent, creating impressive illusions with makeup.  This time, she created an eyeball with perspective eyelashes, iris and pupil on her lips.  The effect is a little discomforting, especially with the teeth.  But its fun. Hat [...]

    Feb 27, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  12. 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 [...]

    Feb 13, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  13. Notable Paper: On Cone Bipolar Cell Axonal Synapses In The OFF Inner Plexiform Layer Of The Rabbit Retina

    This paper in the Journal of Comparative Neurology by  J. Scott Lauritzen, James R. Anderson, Bryan W. Jones, Carl B. Watt, Shoeb Mohammed, John V. Hoang and Robert E. Marc is another effort out of the Marc Laboratory For Connectomics that continues to define complete neural circuits to completeness. This paper is another elucidation of data from the first Rabbit Retinal Connectome volume (RC1) that reveals [...]

    Jan 30, 2013 — Read more 1 Comment

  14. Activation of Survival Pathways In The Degenerating Retina of rd10 Mice

    An interesting article was published  in Experimental Eye Research by Marijana Samardzija, Hedwig Wariwoda, Cornelia Imsand, Philipp Huber, Severin R. Heynen, Andrea Gubler and Christian Grimm that examines survival pathways that are induced in the retinas of rd10 mice.  Dynamics of retinal degeneration in the rd10 mouse was also examined including an analysis of retinal vasculature and [...]

    Jan 25, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  15. Interesting Article: Cellular Resolution Panretinal Imaging of Optogenetic Probes Using a Simple Funduscope

    An interesting paper by Adi Schejter, Limor Tsur, Nairouz Farah, Inna Reutsky-Gefen, Yishay Falick, and Shy Shoham published an interesting paper that shows in vivo fluorescent images with cellular resolution using optogenetic probes expressed in retinal ganglion cells by adapting a simple endoscope as a low cost fundoscopic imaging system. The authors were able to [...]

    Jan 22, 2013 — Read more No Comments

  16. Amazing Anamorphic Illusions

    This illusion has been making the rounds on the Internet lately and we here at Webvision thought we’d share it with this crowd.  These anamorphic illusions are reminiscent of some of the sidewalk chalk paintings that have become popular recently that rely on highly distorted or skewed representations (Ponzo Illusion) of objects or situations that [...]

    Dec 9, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  17. Interesting Article: On the Perception, Production And Function Of Blue Colouration In Animals

    Kate D. L. Umbers has published an interesting manuscript, titled “On the perception, production and function of blue colouration in animals”.  Its available for free at the Journal of Zoology here and covers those studies that have proposed a function for blue coloration in the animal kingdom, taking a multi-disciplinary approach before taking you on a [...]

    Dec 7, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  18. Interesting Review: Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells

    I remember when the first discussion of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) started coming out.    My thinking at the time was: “Wow, cool concept… but how in the world could you stack enough opsins in two membranes to make for any psychophysical perception?”  In short, despite some years of predicting their presence, I did [...]

    Nov 25, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  19. Secret Societies And The Restoration Of Vision

    The desire to restore vision, once lost is as old as man itself. This article by Noah Shachtman in Wired’s Danger Room documents the discovery of a 250 year old code complete with secret society.  Its interesting reading from a variety of perspectives and has some wonderful photographs of the text and “blindfold goggles”, but [...]

    Nov 20, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  20. Interesting Paper: Gene Expression Changes Within Müller Glial Cells in Retinitis Pigmentosa

    Retinal degenerations are accompanied by retinal remodeling events.  These events alter the structure and function of the retina and involve to a large extent, Müller cells which seem to serve as pathways for neuronal migration.  This paper by Karin Roesch, Michael B. Stadler and Constance L. Cepko looks at gene expression changes in the Müller cells, one [...]

    Nov 13, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  21. Interesting Paper: Creatine Transporter Immunolocalization In Aged Human And Detached Retinas

    This manuscript by Clairton F de Souza, Michael Kalloniatis, David L Christie, Philip J Polkinghorne, Charles N J McGhee and Monica L Acosta examines the distribution of creatine transporter in the aging human retina, particularly after retinal detachment.  The questions behind this paper have ultimately to do with examining markers of energy metabolism in the retina and any [...]

    Oct 22, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  22. Notable Paper: The Molecular Mechanism of Thermal Noise in Rod Photoreceptors

      Phototransduction is the process by which photon capture by opsins in photoreceptors is transduced into a neural signal.    However, there are limits on visual sensitivity that are imposed by thermal means as opposed to the photochemical mechanisms resulting in activation of the phototransduction cascade. The mechanism of this limit has long been a [...]

    Sep 12, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  23. Was Van Gogh Colorblind?

    A friend of mine (and amazing landscape/nature photographer) Jim Goldstein sent me a Tweet and pointed out simmering new conjecture in the art community that Vincent Van Gogh might have been color blind, specifically a protanope.  I seem to remember some discussion of this years ago, particularly given that one can rather nicely simulate both protanopia [...]

    Aug 29, 2012 — Read more 19 Comments

  24. The Rd8 mutation of the Crb1 gene is present in vendor lines of C57BL/6N mice and embryonic stem cells

    This is an important issue for anyone involved in using murine models of retinal degeneration.  It turns out that contamination of Rd8 mutation in the B6 mice is more wide spread than the C57BL/6N mice.  Labs worldwide are going to have to reassess their data due to this mutation and all reviewers will ask about this [...]

    Aug 9, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  25. Undersized Dendritic Arborizations in Retinal Ganglion Cells of the rd1 Mutant Mouse: A Paradigm of Early Onset Photoreceptor Degeneration

    This paper by Devid Damiani, Elena Novelli, Francesca Mazzoni and Enrica Strettoi documents continued negative plasticity in retina by examining ganglion cells in the rd1 mouse.  The rd1 mouse is one of many models of retinal degenerative disease, in this case as an autosomal recessive retinal degenerative disease.  This work gets at the remodeling issue [...]

    Aug 8, 2012 — Read more No Comments