Retina Changes "Language" Depending on Ambient Light

"A study at the University of Tübingen highlights the intricate nature of visual responses - findings may help to improve digital cameras as well as visual prosthetics," writes Medical News Today. "A new study...shows that this process is much more complex than previously thought. Scientists of the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) and Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of Tübingen, together with colleagues from the University of Manchester, showed that the activity patterns sent to the brain - the 'language' of the retina - fundamentally depends on the ambient light level in our environment. When light conditions change, the retina speaks a different language. The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience." Read more. 

Zeiss Opens Vision Research Lab at University of Tubingen

“The Zeiss Vision Science Lab opened on Thursday is an additional "Industry on Campus" workgroup at the University of Tübingen. As part of the Excellence Initiative, new collaborative projects with industry are being launched here at the interface between basic research and application orientation,” reports Glass on the Web. "Together with the University of Tübingen, Zeiss is now founding a research laboratory that will investigate this complex interaction. The goal of the Zeiss Vision Science Lab is to gain an understanding of the development of vision, of the interaction of light with the eye and the eyeglass lens, and of the processing of the image in the brain in many different and dynamic situations and, on this basis, to develop new ways of providing natural, optimized vision to each individual wearer. Another item on its agenda is to research into the development of vision and into pathological changes to perception in order to enable their diagnosis by using suitable measuring methods at an early stage. For these patients, this could result in personalized solutions for enhanced vision.” Read more.