NIH researchers decode retinal circuitry for circadian rhythm, pupillary light response
The eye’s light-sensing retina taps different circuits depending on whether it produces image-forming vision or performs non-visual functions such as regulating pupil size or the sleep/wake cycle, according to a new mouse study from the National Eye Institute. NEI) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). These findings could have implications for understanding how our eyes help regulate mood, digestion, sleep and metabolism. NEI and NIMH are part of the National Institutes of Health. “We know a lot about the pathways involved in image-forming vision, but until now it was unknown whether and how non-image-forming visual behavior depended on these same pathways in the eye,” says Johan Pahlberg, Ph.D., head of Photoreceptor Physiology Group at NEI and senior author of the study. Vision begins when light enters the eye and hits the light-sensing photoreceptors of the retina. Photoreceptors transfer signals through several layers of retinal neurons before they are sent to th