Light Exposure During Pregnancy Key to Normal Eye Development
New research concludes the eye, which depends on light to see, also needs light to develop normally during pregnancy.
Researchers Clarify Process Controlling Night Vision
New research reveals the key chemical process that corrects for potential visual errors in low-light conditions. Understanding this fundamental step could lead to new treatments for visual deficits, or might one day boost normal night vision to new levels.
Using the Eye as a Window into the Brain
An inexpensive, five-minute eye scan can accurately assess the amount of brain damage in people with the debilitating autoimmune disorder multiple sclerosis (MS), and offer clues about how quickly the disease is progressing.
An Artificial Retina With the Capacity to Restore Normal Vision
Researchers decipher the retina’s neural code for brain communication to create novel, more effective prosthetic retinal device for blindness.
Pupil Dilation Reveals Sexual Orientation
Researchers used a specialized infrared lens to measure pupillary changes to participants watching erotic videos. Pupils widened most to videos of people who participants found attractive, thereby revealing where they were on the sexual spectrum from heterosexual to homosexual.
Planarians Offer A Better View of Eye Development
Planarian flatworms have come under intense study for their renowned ability to regenerate any missing body part, even as adults. But now they may take on a starring role as a model system for studying eye development and eye diseases in vertebrates, including humans.
Controlling Monkey Brains and Behavior With Light
Researchers can control the behavior of monkeys by using pulses of blue light to very specifically activate particular brain cells. The findings represent a key advance for optogenetics, a state-of-the-art method for making causal connections between brain activity and behavior. Researchers say that similar light-based mind control could likely also be made to work in humans for therapeutic ends.
Chemical Makes Blind Mice See
A team of University of California, Berkeley, scientists in collaboration with researchers at the University of Munich and University of Washington, in Seattle, has discovered a chemical that temporarily restores some vision to blind mice, and is working on an improved compound that may someday allow people with degenerative blindness to see again.
Saliva, Pupil Size Differences in Autism Show System in Overdrive
Pupil size and salivary alpha-amylase could be biological indicators for autonomic dysfunction in children with autism spectrum disorder.
Scientists Identify New Molecules Important for Vision and Brain Function
In a pair of related studies, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified several proteins that help regulate cells’ response to light—and the development of night blindness, a rare disease that abolishes the ability to see in dim light. In the new studies, published recently in the journals Proceedings of the [...]
