Abstract
The vertebrate retina first evolved some 500 million years ago in ancestral marine chordates. Since then, the eyes of different species have been tuned to best support their unique visuoecological lifestyles. Visual specializations in eye designs, large-scale inhomogeneities across the retinal surface and local circuit motifs mean that all species' retinas are unique. Computational theories, such as the efficient coding hypothesis, have come a long way towards an explanation of the basic features of retinal organization and function; however, they cannot explain the full extent of retinal diversity within and across species. To build a truly general understanding of vertebrate vision and the retina's computational purpose, it is therefore important to more quantitatively relate different species' retinal functions to their specific natural environments and behavioural requirements. Ultimately, the goal of such efforts should be to build up to a more general theory of vision.
Highlights
Abstract | The vertebrate retina first evolved some 500 million years ago in ancestral marine chordates
The comparative studies that are necessary to understand more generally how such adaptations relate to the ecological context of different species and to arrive at a truly general theory of vision will require detailed knowledge of retinal circuit structure and function across species
Even within a single species, visual input statistics and behavioural demands can be very different across the visual field, and studies have shown that retinal circuits strongly vary across the retinal surface[1,2,10,11]
Summary
Tom, Euler, Thomas and Berens, Philipp (2020) Understanding the retinal basis of vision across species. The comparative studies that are necessary to understand more generally how such adaptations relate to the ecological context of different species and to arrive at a truly general theory of vision will require detailed knowledge of retinal circuit structure and function across species. Such knowledge may have a broader impact: it is likely that studies of other neural circuits will profit from a deep understanding of the circuits, computational strategies and coding principles that operate in the retina. We show how current technological developments are starting to provide us with important insights into the ways in which retinal function is constantly retuned to meet ever-changing visual demands
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