Why the Eye Is Wired as It Is

"From a practical standpoint, the wiring of the human eye - a product of our evolutionary baggage - doesn't make a lot of sense. In vertebrates, photoreceptors are located behind the neurons in the back of the eye - resulting in light scattering by the nervous fibers and blurring of our vision. Recently, researchers at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology have confirmed the biological purpose for this seemingly counterintuitive setup," according to Medical News Today. "'The retina is not just the simple detector and neural image processor, as believed until today,' said Erez Ribak, a professor at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. 'Its optical structure is optimized for our vision purposes.'" Ribak and his co-authors described their work during the 2015 American Physical Society March Meeting, on Thursday, March 5 in San Antonio, Texas.Read more.