Bulb-like axon terminals of cone photoreceptors within the marmoset’s foveal retina. The blue pedicle, a brief wavelength delicate neuron, offers rise to advanced circuitry that begins a neural code for coloration notion. Credit: Yeon Jin Kim/University of Washington Biological Structure
Research signifies that sure neural cell circuits chargeable for coloration imaginative and prescient are unique to people.
Research within the subject of coloration imaginative and prescient has uncovered new proof suggesting that people have the potential to detect a broader spectrum of blue hues in comparison with monkeys.
According to researchers, “distinct connections found in the human retina may indicate recent evolutionary adaptations for sending enhanced color vision signals from the eye to the brain.” Their findings have been printed on April 25 within the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Yeon Jin Kim, appearing teacher, and Dennis M. Dacey, professor, each within the Department of Biological Structure on the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, led the worldwide, collaborative mission.
They have been joined by Orin S. Packer of the Dacey lab; Andreas Pollreisz on the Medical University of Vienna, Austria; in addition to Paul R. Martin, professor of experimental ophthalmology, and Ulrike Grünert, affiliate professor of ophthalmology and visible science, each on the University of Sydney, Australia, and the Save Sight Institute.
The scientists compared connections between color-transmitting nerve cells in the retinas of humans with those in two monkeys, the Old World macaque and the New World common marmoset. The ancestors of modern humans diverged from these two other primate species approximately 25 million years ago.
By using a fine-scale microscopic reconstruction method, the researchers wanted to determine if the neural wiring of the areas associated with color vision is conserved across these three species, despite each taking their own independent evolutionary pathways.
The scientists looked at the lightwave-detecting cone cells of the fovea of the retina. This small dimple is densely packed with cone cells. It is the part of the retina responsible for the sharp visual acuity needed to see important details, such as words on a page or what’s ahead while driving, and for color vision.
Cone cells come in three sensitivities: short, medium, and long wavelengths. Information about color comes from neural circuits that process information across different cone types.
The researchers discovered that a certain short-wave or blue-sensitive cone circuit found in humans is absent in marmosets. It is also different from the circuit seen in the macaque monkey. Other features the scientists found in the nerve cell connections in human color vision were not expected, based on earlier nonhuman primate color vision models.
A better understanding of the species-specific, complex neural circuitry that codes for color perception could eventually help explain the origins of the color vision qualities that are distinct to humans.
The researchers also mentioned the possibility that differences among mammals in their visual circuitry could have been at least partially shaped by their behavioral adaptation to ecological niches. Marmosets live in trees whereas humans prefer to dwell on land. The ability to spot ripe fruit among the shifting light of a forest, for example, may have offered a selective advantage for particular color visual circuity. However, the actual effects of environment and behavior on color vision circuitry have not yet been established.
More generally, comparative studies of neural circuits at the level of connections and signaling between nerve cells, the researchers noted, could help answer many other questions. These include elucidating the underlying logic of neural circuit design and providing insight into how evolution has modified the nervous system to help shape perception and behavior.
Reference: “Comparative connectomics reveals noncanonical wiring for color vision in human foveal retina” by Yeon Jin Kim, Orin Packer, Andreas Pollreisz, Paul R. Martin, Ulrike Grünert and Dennis M. Dacey, 25 April 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300545120
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Eye Institute.
