Removal of "superfluous" retina creates (time) blind mice...

Darkfrog submitted, created time 6 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

Removing a certain type of retinal cell from lab mice doesn't make them go blind, but it does shake up their body clocks; they quickly slip into a 23.5 hour cycle--the same as unaltered mice in total darkness. They also lost their ability to regulate pupil size, but not their other visual abilities, such as judging how far to jump to make it across a gap. This suggests that these melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs) concern the detection of light, not the processing of visual information.

What I'm curious about now is whether blind humans do or do not have this problem

3 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: blindness retina diptheria circadian rhythms body clock sleep cycle sleep vision drug target melanopsin melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion c mRGCs