Despite the fact that we can orient ourselves at dusk and in poor lighting conditions, we, unfortunately, do not have full-fledged night vision. However, it is quite possible that this possibility is still “built in” into our retina. It's just that in the course of evolution, people have lost this property, but in theory it is quite possible to return it.
This conclusion, according to the reports of the journal Neuron, was reached by a group of scientists from Canada and the United States. The fact is that, according to experts, mammalian eyes have several types of nerve cells in the retina that are responsible for recognizing movement. Each group of cells is responsible for one of 4 directions. If objects move to the right relative to the observer, the right group is used, if to the left, the left, and so on. At the same time, in very low light conditions, the retina retains the ability to recognize movement, but due to the lack of light, we "do not see" this. Although, in fact, nerve impulses practically do not change.
In a series of experiments, scientists placed an electrode on the retina of laboratory animals, with which it was possible to track the activity of neurons. As a result, it turned out that the cells of the retina reacted to movement in the dark as well as in the light, but regardless of the direction of movement, only those neurons that were responsible for moving up and down were active. As the researchers suggest, this is due to the fact that it is in this direction, as a rule, that predators attack (jump out of an ambush), therefore maintaining the activity of these cells is extremely important for survival. Now the authors continue research in order to detect a similar property of neurons in humans, and also to find out whether it is possible to somehow change the receptivity of the retina and endow it with the function of full-fledged night vision.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
