HWN Suggests

Living optic fibres bypass the retina’s incompetent design

If you were a designer tasked with creating a machine for collecting and processing light, the last thing you would come up with is the human eye. Darwin marvelled at the eye as an “organ of extreme perfection”, but in this, he was wrong. Aside from the many illusions that can fool them, our eyes have a major structural flaw. In humans and other back-boned animals, the light-sensing cells of the eye – the “photoreceptors” lie at the back of the retina.

In front of these sensors lie several layers of nerve cells that carry their signals, and blood vessels that supply them with nutrients. The nerves join to the main optic nerve which passes through a hole in the centre of the retina and…

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Featured

 Look, your eyes are wired backwards: here’s why

The human eye is optimised to have good colour vision at day and high sensitivity at night. But until recently it seemed as if the cells in the retina were wired the wrong way round, with light travelling through a mass of neurons before it reaches the light-detecting rod and cone cells.

Articles of Interest

A window to the brain: the retina gives away signs of Alzheimer’s disease and could help with early detection

The retina has long been poeticised as the window to the soul, but research now shows it could be a window to the brain and act as an early warning system for cognitive decline. A growing body of research suggests the retina is thinner in people with Alzheimer’s disease, reflecting the cell loss that is a hallmark of the neurodegenerative disease.

Act Fast to Save Sight if Signs of Danger to the Retina Appear

As with all living tissue, the retina is highly dependent on a constant supply of oxygen-carrying blood. Should anything disrupt that, vision is at risk. Two retinal mishaps, retinal-vein occlusion and retinal detachment, can occur at any age, but both are more common among older people.

Amsler Grid: An at-home test to help detect changes in your vision

The Amsler Grid test can be an important indicator of diseases in the retina. Test your eyes daily to detect changes as early as possible. If you normally wear reading glasses, please wear them while performing this test. Proper lighting also is essential. The Amsler Grid should be held at a normal reading distance and should be tested from the same distance each day.

Here’s Why Your Eyes Seem to Be Wired ‘Backward’

Light has to pass through nerve cells to get to the rods and cones, but that order is no mistake.

Human Retinas Grown In A Dish Reveal Origin Of Color Vision

In order to see the red of a sunset or the green of spring leaves, developing human eyes need to get the right hormone at the right time. That's the finding of a team of scientists who studied how color vision develops using hundreds of human retinas grown in the lab.

I Tore My Retina on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

A few years ago, while riding Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, I noticed a flash of light in my right eye. My vision wasn’t impaired beyond this, so I thought nothing of it, but when I went to visit my eye doctor for a routine exam a few days later, he was very concerned. A trip to a retinal specialist gave me the diagnosis that my retina had detached.

The Retina

Our eyes are windows to the soul. They enchant us with the power of wordless speech. Our eyes are tools of the brain, designed to gather, guide and filter light for ultimate conversion into the brain's own language. Whereas most animals rely on hearing and smell, we put our trust in sight for our survival and quality of life. It is no wonder, then, that loss of vision is such a dreaded event, the most feared of all disabilities.

The Risk of Ignoring Signs of Retinal Damage

As people age, they are more prone to a tearing of the retina. Left untreated, it can progress to permanent vision loss.

Resources

My Retina Tracker Registry

The My Retina Tracker Registry is a research database of people and families affected by rare inherited retinal degenerative diseases (IRD). There are over 20 retinal degenerative diseases which the Foundation Fighting Blindness studies. The list, includes retinitis pigmentosa, Leber congenital amaurosis, Stargardt disease, Usher syndrome, Best disease, choroideremia, and achromatopsia, amongst others.

Retina Homepage

Tracking the latest news and publications in the world of retina.

RetinalLink

We share information, impressions, perspective and insight into relevant topics and trends most important to their specialty and patients. We strive to promote the advancement of medical and surgical retina through an informational and educational exchange that helps retina specialists share the latest news on clinical trials and surgical technological advancements by connecting them to their peers around the globe.

RetNet

RetNet provides tables of genes and loci causing inherited retinal diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration and Usher syndrome, and related information. This information is provided to the research community and other interested individuals for research purposes only.

Modern Retina

The leading source for #Retina covering age-related macular degeneration (AMD)...

Retina International

Retina International (RI) is a global umbrella organisation for patient-led charities and foundations who support research into rare, genetically inherited and age-related forms of retinal disease. Retina International is a registered charity in Ireland.

Retina Research Foundation

When it comes to disease, prevention is always the best cure. That is the premise upon which Retina Research Foundation (RRF) was built, and which continues to be our driving force. Understanding the causes of retinal disease is the first step towards finding cures.

Retina Specialist

Timely reports on retina research and professional news, from the editors of Review of Ophthalmology and Retina Specialist

Retina Today

Retina Today is a publication that delivers the latest research and clinical developments from areas such as medical retina, retinal surgery, vitreous, diabetes, retinal imaging, posterior segment oncology and ocular trauma.

Retinal Physician

Retinal Physician®: Therapeutic and Surgical Treatment of the Posterior Segment delivers in-depth coverage of the latest advances in AMD, diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, retinal vein occlusion as well as surgical intervention in posterior segment care.

RetinaRisk

We’re a HealthTech company founded by world-renowned team of visionary doctors to transform the future of healthcare by providing personalized care based on individualized risk assessment. Our initial focus is diabetic eye disease, one of the leading causes of blindness which can be prevented in over 90% of cases with early detection.

The Retina Society

Our mission is to reduce worldwide visual disability and blindness by promoting the education and professional interaction of vitreoretinal specialists, providing optimal care for patients with vitreoretinal diseases, and encouraging, through clinical and basic research, the discovery and development of new means to further patient care.

American Society of Retina Specialists

The Society serves as a national advocate and primary source of clinical and scientific information and education for its members.

International Journal of Retina and Vitreous

International Journal of Retina and Vitreous focuses on the ophthalmic subspecialty of vitreoretinal disorders. The journal presents original articles on new approaches to diagnosis, outcomes of clinical trials, innovations in pharmacological therapy and surgical techniques, as well as basic science advances that impact clinical practice.

Journal of Retina

Journal of Retina is an open access journal (CC BY NC). It is the official journal of the Korean Retina Society (KRS) and publishes articles related to retinal and vitreous research biannually.

Ophthalmology Retina

Ophthalmology Retina, a journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, serves society by publishing clinical and basic science research and other relevant manuscripts that relate to the sense of sight. Excellence is pursued through unbiased peer-review...

Radiopaedia

The blood supply of the retina is from two sources, supplying different portions of the organ. The integrity of the retina depends on both of these circulations, neither of which alone is sufficient. The outer lamina, including the rods and cones and outer nuclear layer, are supplied by choroidal capillaries.

StatPearls

The retina is a layer of photoreceptors cells and glial cells within the eye that captures incoming photons and transmits them along neuronal pathways as both electrical and chemical signals for the brain to perceive a visual picture.