A tremendous amount of circuitry is required for your eyes to actually let you see. And researchers have just assembled a 3D model that shows exactly how complex the retina is, using data from observations on an animal researchers expected to have eyes far simpler than humans: a mouse.

Mice don’t have particularly advanced vision, so researchers thought they’d be perfect for finding a basic model of how retinas work. That sort of model could not only help us understand our own eyes, but find ways to improve vision in lifelike robots.

As it turned out, mouse retinas aren’t so simple.

In fact, they’re so complicated that scientists had to crowdsource their analysis, turning it into a game where users could assemble neurons like puzzle pieces. About 30,000 players helped with the reconstruction, intricate 3D map of a mouse retina.

Watch the video above to see the “museum” the scientists created to showcase their findings, and hear where they think it may lead.

Published by May 22, 2018 by QUARTZ

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