Red Cell Motion Detection

Red Cell Motion Detection



#neuroscience   #motionperception  

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Driving a car, you see a child dart into the street. You hit the brakes. Disaster averted. But how did your eyes detect that movement? It’s a question that has confounded scientists.
Now, studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have an answer: A neural circuit in the retina at the back of the eye carries signals that enable the eye to detect movement. The finding could help in efforts to build artificial retinas for people who have suffered vision loss. Read more: bit.ly/1SotTnT

Image: A labeling agent visualizes a specific type of retinal cell (red) in the eye that’s key to detecting motion.
Publication: An excitatory amacrine cell detects object motion and provides feature-selective input to ganglion cells in the mouse retina.   eLife, 2015. doi: 10.7554/eLife.08025
Image credit: Kerschensteiner lab, Washington University