Fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.

All known photoreceptor cells adapt to constant light stimuli, fading the retinal image when exposed to an immobile visual scene. Counter strategies are therefore necessary to prevent blindness, and in mammals this is accomplished by fixational eye movements. Cubomedusae occupy a key position for un...

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Autores principales: Jan Bielecki, Jens T Høeg, Anders Garm
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Publicado: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/19dcff0c50074f56bfa72aa00d458edc
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:19dcff0c50074f56bfa72aa00d458edc2021-11-18T07:42:12ZFixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0066442https://doaj.org/article/19dcff0c50074f56bfa72aa00d458edc2013-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23776673/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203All known photoreceptor cells adapt to constant light stimuli, fading the retinal image when exposed to an immobile visual scene. Counter strategies are therefore necessary to prevent blindness, and in mammals this is accomplished by fixational eye movements. Cubomedusae occupy a key position for understanding the evolution of complex visual systems and their eyes are assumedly subject to the same adaptive problems as the vertebrate eye, but lack motor control of their visual system. The morphology of the visual system of cubomedusae ensures a constant orientation of the eyes and a clear division of the visual field, but thereby also a constant retinal image when exposed to stationary visual scenes. Here we show that bell contractions used for swimming in the medusae refresh the retinal image in the upper lens eye of Tripedalia cystophora. This strongly suggests that strategies comparable to fixational eye movements have evolved at the earliest metazoan stage to compensate for the intrinsic property of the photoreceptors. Since the timing and amplitude of the rhopalial movements concur with the spatial and temporal resolution of the eye it circumvents the need for post processing in the central nervous system to remove image blur.Jan BieleckiJens T HøegAnders GarmPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 6, p e66442 (2013)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Jan Bielecki
Jens T Høeg
Anders Garm
Fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.
description All known photoreceptor cells adapt to constant light stimuli, fading the retinal image when exposed to an immobile visual scene. Counter strategies are therefore necessary to prevent blindness, and in mammals this is accomplished by fixational eye movements. Cubomedusae occupy a key position for understanding the evolution of complex visual systems and their eyes are assumedly subject to the same adaptive problems as the vertebrate eye, but lack motor control of their visual system. The morphology of the visual system of cubomedusae ensures a constant orientation of the eyes and a clear division of the visual field, but thereby also a constant retinal image when exposed to stationary visual scenes. Here we show that bell contractions used for swimming in the medusae refresh the retinal image in the upper lens eye of Tripedalia cystophora. This strongly suggests that strategies comparable to fixational eye movements have evolved at the earliest metazoan stage to compensate for the intrinsic property of the photoreceptors. Since the timing and amplitude of the rhopalial movements concur with the spatial and temporal resolution of the eye it circumvents the need for post processing in the central nervous system to remove image blur.
format article
author Jan Bielecki
Jens T Høeg
Anders Garm
author_facet Jan Bielecki
Jens T Høeg
Anders Garm
author_sort Jan Bielecki
title Fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.
title_short Fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.
title_full Fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.
title_fullStr Fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.
title_full_unstemmed Fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.
title_sort fixational eye movements in the earliest stage of metazoan evolution.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate 2013
url https://doaj.org/article/19dcff0c50074f56bfa72aa00d458edc
work_keys_str_mv AT janbielecki fixationaleyemovementsintheearlieststageofmetazoanevolution
AT jensthøeg fixationaleyemovementsintheearlieststageofmetazoanevolution
AT andersgarm fixationaleyemovementsintheearlieststageofmetazoanevolution
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