scholarly journals Circadian Vision in Zebrafish: From Molecule to Cell and from Neural Network to Behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 451-462
Author(s):  
Lei Li

Most visual system functions, such as opsin gene expression, retinal neural transmission, light perception, and visual sensitivity, display robust day-night rhythms. The rhythms persist in constant lighting conditions, suggesting the involvement of endogenous circadian clocks. While the circadian pacemakers that control the rhythms of animal behaviors are mostly found in the forebrain and midbrain, self-sustained circadian oscillators are also present in the neural retina, where they play important roles in the regulation of circadian vision. This review highlights some of the correlative studies of the circadian control of visual system functions in zebrafish. Because zebrafish maintain a high evolutionary proximity to mammals, the findings from zebrafish research may provide insights for a better understanding of the mechanisms of circadian vision in other vertebrate species including humans.

Diseases ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Hardeland

Melatonin has been used preclinically and clinically for different purposes. Some applications are related to readjustment of circadian oscillators, others use doses that exceed the saturation of melatonin receptors MT1 and MT2 and are unsuitable for chronobiological purposes. Conditions are outlined for appropriately applying melatonin as a chronobiotic or for protective actions at elevated levels. Circadian readjustments require doses in the lower mg range, according to receptor affinities. However, this needs consideration of the phase response curve, which contains a silent zone, a delay part, a transition point and an advance part. Notably, the dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) is found in the silent zone. In this specific phase, melatonin can induce sleep onset, but does not shift the circadian master clock. Although sleep onset is also under circadian control, sleep and circadian susceptibility are dissociated at this point. Other limits of soporific effects concern dose, duration of action and poor individual responses. The use of high melatonin doses, up to several hundred mg, for purposes of antioxidative and anti-inflammatory protection, especially in sepsis and viral diseases, have to be seen in the context of melatonin’s tissue levels, its formation in mitochondria, and detoxification of free radicals.


2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1702) ◽  
pp. 107-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia S. Carvalho ◽  
Ben Knott ◽  
Mathew L. Berg ◽  
Andrew T. D. Bennett ◽  
David M. Hunt

Long-term exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light generates substantial damage, and in mammals, visual sensitivity to UV is restricted to short-lived diurnal rodents and certain marsupials. In humans, the cornea and lens absorb all UV-A and most of the terrestrial UV-B radiation, preventing the reactive and damaging shorter wavelengths from reaching the retina. This is not the case in certain species of long-lived diurnal birds, which possess UV-sensitive (UVS) visual pigments, maximally sensitive below 400 nm. The Order Psittaciformes contains some of the longest lived bird species, and the two species examined so far have been shown to possess UVS pigments. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of UVS pigments across long-lived parrots, macaws and cockatoos, and therefore assess whether they need to cope with the accumulated effects of exposure to UV-A and UV-B over a long period of time. Sequences from the SWS1 opsin gene revealed that all 14 species investigated possess a key substitution that has been shown to determine a UVS pigment. Furthermore, in vitro regeneration data, and lens transparency, corroborate the molecular findings of UV sensitivity. Our findings thus support the claim that the Psittaciformes are the only avian Order in which UVS pigments are ubiquitous, and indicate that these long-lived birds have UV sensitivity, despite the risks of photodamage.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 925-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
GERARD H. DALY ◽  
JESSICA M. DILEONARDO ◽  
NATALIE R. BALKEMA ◽  
GRANT W. BALKEMA

Significant variation in absolute dark-adapted thresholds is observed both within and between strains of mice with differing ocular pigmentation levels. Differences in threshold within a single strain are related to the Williams' photostasis effect, that is, photoreceptor rhodopsin levels are dependent upon ambient lighting conditions. To examine threshold differences among strains, we equalized rhodopsin levels by maintaining albino mice (c2J/c2J) at 2 × 10−4 cd/m2 (dim light) and black mice at 2 × 102 cd/m2 (bright light). This resulted in ocular rhodopsin levels for albino mice (albino—dim) of 494 ± 11 pmoles/eye and rhodopsin levels for black mice (black—bright) of 506 ± 25 pmoles/eye. For comparison, rhodopsin levels in black mice maintained in dim light are 586 ± 46 pmoles/eye and 217 ± 46 pmoles/eye in albino mice maintained in bright light. We found similar dark-adapted thresholds (6.38 log cd/m2vs. 6.47 log cd/m2)) in albino and black mice with equivalent rhodopsin determined with a water maze test. This suggests that dark-adapted thresholds are directly related to rhodopsin levels regardless of the level of ocular melanin. The number of photoreceptors, photoreceptor layer thickness, and outer segment length did not differ significantly between albino (dark) and black mice (bright). These results demonstrate that the visual sensitivity defect found in hypopigmented animals is secondary to abnormal rhodopsin regulation and that hypopigmented animals have either an improper input to the photostasis mechanism or that the photostasis mechanism is defective.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e4290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Weber ◽  
Elżbieta Kula-Eversole ◽  
Elżbieta Pyza

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreya Banerjee ◽  
Walter J. Scheirer ◽  
Lei Li

AbstractWe propose a computational model of vision that describes the integration of cross-modal sensory information between the olfactory and visual systems in zebrafish based on the principles of the statistical extreme value theory. The integration of olfacto-retinal information is mediated by the centrifugal pathway that originates from the olfactory bulb and terminates in the neural retina. Motivation for using extreme value theory stems from physiological evidence suggesting that extremes and not the mean of the cell responses direct cellular activity in the vertebrate brain. We argue that the visual system, as measured by retinal ganglion cell responses in spikes/sec, follows an extreme value process for sensory integration and the increase in visual sensitivity from the olfactory input can be better modeled using extreme value distributions. As zebrafish maintains high evolutionary proximity to mammals, our model can be extended to other vertebrates as well.


e-CliniC ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 424
Author(s):  
Wenny Supit

Abstract: Of the many ocular blunt traumas, trauma due to typical buffalo attack thrrough leverage has not been reported. We reported a 65-year-old man attacked by a buffalo on his left eye. The patients complained of pain of his left eye associated with swelling, bleeding, and blurred vision. Eye examination revealed that visual acuity of the left eye was classified as hand motion (HM), limited ocular motility, blepharospasm, and a crescent-shaped anterior lamella laceration with lateral canthal involvement. Anterior segment examination revealed bullous subconjunctival hemorrhage, corneal edema, and rosette-shaped opacification (RSO) of the lens. Head-CT showed traumatic cataract and periorbital haemorrhage; no abnormalities in the right eye. Ovular trauma score (OTS) of the patient was three indicating that the possible visual prognosis was 2% as no light perception (NLP), 11% as light perception (LP) or hand motion (HM), 15% as 1/200-19/200, 31% as 20/200-20/50, and 41% as >20/40. Literature data showed that the visual sensitivity of OTS prediction in NLP, 20/200-20/50, and 20/40 was 100%. The specificity of OTS in predicting vision in LP/HM 1/200-19/200 was 100%. After a recovery period of approximately two months and the sutured wound healed, the patient came to the eye clinic of Prof. Dr. R. D. Kandou Hospital Manado. After a cataract surgery was performed on the left eye of the patient, his visual acuity improved to 20/40.Keywords: ocular trauma, buffalo attack, ocular trauma score (OTS)  Abstrak: Dari sekian banyaknya trauma tumpul, trauma akibat rudapaksa tipikal serangan kerbau yang menggunakan gaya ungkit belum pernah dilaporkan. Kami melaorkan seorang laki-laki berusia 65 tahun yang mendapat serangan kerbau pada mata kiri dengan keluhan nyeri disertai pembengkakan, pendarahan, dan penglihatan kabur. Pemeriksaan mata menunjukkan ketajaman visual mata kiri dengan gerakan tangan, motilitas okular terbatas, blefarospasme, dan laserasi lamela anterior berbentuk bulan sabit dengan keterlibatan kantal lateral. Pemeriksaan segmen anterior menunjukkan perdarahan subkonjungtiva bulosa, edema kornea, dan rosette-shaped opacification (RSO) pada lensa. Hasil CT-kepala menunjukkan katarak traumatik dan perdarahan periorbital, tanpa kelainan pada mata kanan. Skor trauma okular pasien (OTS) ialah tiga yang menandakan kemungkinan prognosis pada visual pasien ialah 2% menjadi no light perception (NLP), 11% menjadi light perception (LP) atau hand motion (HM), 15% menjadi 1/200-19/200, 31% menjadi 20/200-20/50, dan 41% menjadi >20/40. Penggunaan OTS pada kasus ini karena data literatur menunjukkan bahwa sensitivitas penglihatan prediksi OTS di NLP, 20/200-20/50, dan 20/40 ialah 100%. Kekhususan OTS dalam memrediksi visi di LP/HM 1/200-19/200 ialah 100%. Setelah masa pemulihan sekitar dua bulan dan luka penjahitan sembuh, pasien datang kontrol ke poliklinik mata RSUP Prof. Dr. R. D. Kandou Manado. Setelah dilakukan operasi katarak pada mata kiri didapatkan tajam penglihatan mata kiri pasien 20/40.Kata kunci: trauma mata, serangan kerbau, ocular trauma score (OTS)


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liuba Papeo ◽  
Etienne Abassi

Detection and recognition of social interactions unfolding in the surroundings is as vital as detection and recognition of faces, bodies, and animate entities in general. We have demonstrated that the visual system is particularly sensitive to a configuration with two bodies facing each other as if interacting. In four experiments using backward masking on healthy adults, we investigated the properties of this dyadic visual representation. We measured the inversion effect (IE), the cost on recognition, of seeing bodies upside-down as opposed to upright, as an index of visual sensitivity: the greater the visual sensitivity, the greater the IE. The IE was increased for facing (vs. nonfacing) dyads, whether the head/face direction was visible or not, which implies that visual sensitivity concerns two bodies, not just two faces/heads. Moreover, the difference in IE for facing vs. nonfacing dyads disappeared when one body was replaced by another object. This implies selective sensitivity to a body facing another body, as opposed to a body facing anything. Finally, the IE was reduced when reciprocity was eliminated (one body faced another but the latter faced away). Thus, the visual system is sensitive selectively to dyadic configurations that approximate a prototypical social exchange with two bodies spatially close and mutually accessible to one another. These findings reveal visual configural representations encompassing multiple objects, which could provide fast and automatic parsing of complex relationships beyond individual faces or bodies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (48) ◽  
pp. 12247-12252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Sakai ◽  
Shoji Kawamura ◽  
Masakado Kawata

According to the sensory drive model, variation in visual properties can lead to diverse female preferences, which in turn results in a range of male nuptial colors by way of sexual selection. However, the cause of variation in visual properties and the mechanism by which variation drives female response to visual signals remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that both differences in the long-wavelength–sensitive 1 (LWS-1) opsin genotype and the light environment during rearing lead to variation in opsin gene expression. Opsin expression variation affects the visual sensitivity threshold to long wavelengths of light. Moreover, a behavioral assay using digitally modified video images showed that the expression of multiple opsin genes is positively correlated with the female responsiveness to images of males with luminous orange spots. The findings suggest that genetic polymorphisms and light environment in habitats induce variations in opsin gene expression levels. The variations may facilitate variations in visual sensitivity and female responsiveness to male body colors within and among populations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 20150954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mélissa Martin ◽  
Marc Théry ◽  
Gwendolen Rodgers ◽  
Delphine Goven ◽  
Stéphane Sourice ◽  
...  

We experimentally investigated the influence of developmental plasticity of ultraviolet (UV) visual sensitivity on predation efficiency of the larval smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris . We quantified expression of SWS1 opsin gene (UV-sensitive protein of photoreceptor cells) in the retinas of individuals who had developed in the presence (UV+) or absence (UV−) of UV light (developmental treatments), and tested their predation efficiency under UV+ and UV− light (testing treatments). We found that both SWS1 opsin expression and predation efficiency were significantly reduced in the UV− developmental group. Larvae in the UV− testing environment displayed consistently lower predation efficiency regardless of their developmental treatment. These results prove for the first time, we believe, functional UV vision and developmental plasticity of UV sensitivity in an amphibian at the larval stage. They also demonstrate that UV wavelengths enhance predation efficiency and suggest that the magnitude of the behavioural response depends on retinal properties induced by the developmental lighting environment.


Author(s):  
Robert Laureno

This chapter on “Decussation” examines the right–left crossing of neurological systems. Covered are the corticospinal tract, optic chiasm, and other subjects. The presence of crossed neurological systems is basic to clinical neurology. Crossing, however, appears to not be essential, and the amount of crossing can vary from individual to individual. We can track across vertebrate species the evolution of complete chiasmal crossing to the diminished crossing seen in the human visual system. This change in crossing of vision is very understandable as a correlate of the evolution of a lateral-eyed animal to a frontal-eyed human. The origin of crossing cannot be determined with certainty; we can only speculate about how many times crossing developed in pre-vertebrate history or what advantages, if any, crossing conferred. Clinicians, however, must be prepared to recognize patients with uncrossed anatomy—a challenge when we expect systems to be crossed as usual.


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