Sci Adv: Research reveals why people can see 3D images

November 16, 2020 // -- Researchers led by Dr. Eloísa Herrera from UMH-CSIC have discovered a genetic mechanism that is essential for forming a two-sided circuit, which enables the body to obtain 3D vision or makes motion coordination possible.
findings were published recently in the journal Science Advance.
The new study not only sheds light on how images are transferred from the retina to the brain for 3D perspective, but also helps us understand how laterality is established in other neuron circuits, such as those that allow us to coordinate movements.
(Photo Source: Www.pixabay.com) This work also reveals the important role of proteins called Zic2 in the regulation of signaling pathways called Wnt, which is critical to the proper development of embryos and is highly conservative between fruit flies and species such as humans, including mice.
this pathway often mutates in diseases such as spina bifida or other diseases that are not fully related to the closure of neural tubes, as well as in certain types of cancer.
details described in this work about regulating the pathway through Zic2 will help to understand the origin of such pathology in an attempt to prevent their appearance.
ability to perceive the 3D world and respond appropriately to external stimuli depends to a large extent on a neural circuit called a two-sided circuit that communicates between the two hemispheres of the brain and is critical to many of the tasks we perform every day.
these two-sided circuits require both the intersecting of a portion of the nerve fibers and the hem of the side-by-side brain of their origin, as well as the persistence of the other half in its hemisphere of origin.
"The genetic mechanisms we have identified ensure that some neurons located in the retina transmit visual information to the opposite hemisphere of the brain, and the Zic2 protein shuts down the program in the retinal neurons, allowing visual signals to reach the same hemisphere."
ago, Dr. Eloísa Herrera's team found that Zic2 ensures that the extension of neurons (axons) remains in the same hemisphere as its origin.
new work, they found that Zic2 shuts down the genetic procedure that keeps axons in the same hemisphere, allowing them to cross the other hemisphere of the brain.
the findings were made in mice's visual path paths, similar to those of other mammals, including us humans.
the two optical nerves that connect the retina to the brain are formed by a large number of nerve fibers.
two optic nerves come together in an X-shaped structure, called an X-shaped visual intersection, at the bottom of the brain.
the intersection of information between the two hemispheres of the brain, making 3-D vision possible.
" each eye sends visual messages to both sides of the brain, as half of the neuron axons located in the retina are connected to the opposite hemisphere through the central brain line, while the other half avoids this crossover to project anatomy into the brain, allowing the brain to fuse slightly different images received from each eye, creating a three-dimensional sense.
," Dr. Herrera explained.
Zic2 acts as a switch to turn off genetic procedures that allow axons to pass to another hemisphere of the brain.
this "connecting pathway" is essential for the brain to create three-dimensional images from two flat images from the retina.
() Source: Researchers the genetic program that allows us to see in 3-D Original source: Herrera et al., A Zic2-regulatory switch in a noncanonical Wnt/betacatenin pathway is essential for formation the bilateral circuits. Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz8797