The eyes of mammal embryos see more inside the womb than we expect

I thought the Mahdi

When you first opened your eyes, what you saw was just a ray of light. It was in the second third of your life cycle in your mother's womb. In the meantime, your brain was developing rapidly, and you had two perfect lungs even though you were not using them. More importantly, your retina is already picking up the first ray of light.

Current Biology published a new study on November 7 and published by the media at the end of the month that mammalian embryos' eyes could see more than a ray of light during their incubation.

Subtypes of retinal cells
Retinal ganglion cells (sticks and cones) discovered a decade ago are the first light-sensitive neurons to develop in the retina. Scientists believed that these cells were not linked to the brain at the birth of mammals, it requires some time and training to develop links between them.

However, a recent study by the Helen Wells Institute of Neuroscience at the University of California in the United States, reported that new experiments conducted by a research team from the University on a group of mice and monkey embryos revealed that these retinal neurons in the eye of the mammal embryo transmit signals to parts Different from the brain, related to ambient light including areas of pupil dilatation and circadian rhythms. This proves that it plays a role in the encryption of a lot of information to be transmitted to the brain, and demonstrates the existence of some relationship with the brain.

The team was able to identify six subtypes of retinal neurons, but so far they have not been able to see how they might affect retinal development.

Electrical Connectors
Retinal anatomy in newborn mice has demonstrated that all six subtypes of retinal neurons are interconnected via electrical conductors.

Scientists have noted that some species were dependent on electrical conductors, while others did not, suggesting that each may have different roles from the rest.

For example, type II and V are widely connected to form a neural circuit based on the discovery of light, whereas type I is isolated and generates a response to light only through internal subjective means.

Temporary functional blindness
The researchers work to understand the role of electrical conductors between those detected retinal neurons in how the retina connects to the brain, as they may have a role in non-vision rather than vision, in the sense that they could be the reason why newborn mammals avoid seeing light, making us We think they breed with a state of temporary functional blindness.

Further studies are needed before researchers can determine how these cells function and develop, and what behavioral responses they may cause.

In addition, the research faces the most difficult challenge: does the retina develop in the human embryo eye the same mechanism as it develops in the eye of mice or monkeys, especially since each has a completely different physiological composition?

Given the ethical aspects of human growth research, mice and monkeys remain one of the best models from which we must learn more from our eyes.