Topic: retinal photoreceptors

In line with the efficient coding hypothesis, the early visual system aims to minimize spectral and spatial redundancies arising from overlapping opsin sensitivities in retinal photoreceptors (PRs) and highly correlated structure in natural scenes. Encoding color information, or spectral information independent of intensity, requires comparing activities across different types of PRs. Mounting evidence shows that several species across the animal kingdom, such as the fruit fly Drosophila Melanogaster, have an uneven proportion of PR types in their retinas. However, it is unknown whether this u

Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a common complication of diabetes, is a leading cause of blindness among working-age individuals worldwide. Traditionally, DR was considered primarily a microvascular complication, categorized as either nonproliferative or proliferative based on neovascularization presence. However, emerging evidence suggested that neurodegeneration plays a crucial role in DR beyond its microvascular aspects. Neurotrophic factors, such as nerve growth factor (NGF), have significant effects on neuronal survival. In the visual system, NGF influences retina and optic nerve development,