Summary: Researchers investigate how people are able to see objects clearly during a dark solar eclipse than on a typical moonless night.

Source: Ohio State University.

If you were fortunate enough to witness the recent total solar eclipse in all its glory, you might have noticed something surprising.

It was dark as night, yet people and objects were easier to see than on a typical moonless night.

Scientists at The Ohio State University have discovered a possible biological explanation – the presence (or absence) of a protein in the retina known as a GABA receptor. GABA, short for gamma-aminobutyric acid, is a chemical messenger responsible for communication between cells, especially those in the brain.

The GABA receptor is in abundance on certain cells in the retina on sunny days, and enhances the ability to see details and edges of objects. At night, it disappears.

But that process is normally gradual. When the total eclipse took viewers from brightness to darkness in minutes, the GABA receptor would have still been present on those cells in their eyes, giving them super-sharp night vision for a brief time, said lead researcher Stuart Mangel, a professor of neuroscience at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.

The study, which was conducted in rabbits, also found that the neurotransmitter dopamine, which increases in the light and decreases in the dark, regulates whether the GABA receptor is working.

“It has been known for decades that there is a mechanism in the retina in the eye that helps us see small objects and detect edges on bright days, and that this mechanism gradually turns off when it is dark. However, what this mechanism is and how it is controlled has been a mystery,” said Mangel, a member of Ohio State’s Neuroscience Research Institute.

The research appears in the journal Current Biology.

“On bright days, dopamine levels are high and signaling is strong, enhancing the detection of spatial details and edges,” Mangel said. “On moonless nights, however, dopamine levels are low and the GABA signal is minimal, decreasing our ability to see those details.”

Mangel, who visited Tennessee for the Aug. 21 eclipse, said he and others experienced an unusual clarity of vision during the minutes when the moon shut out the sun’s rays.

“During the total eclipse, it was as dark as it usually is at dusk. Several people I was with commented that they could see as well during totality as they could when it had been bright, and that their acuity was much better than it usually is when it is dark at dusk,” he said.

He realized at the time that his research offers one explanation.

Normally, when you’re outdoors, it takes hours for the background light to decrease from bright to dark as the Earth rotates on its axis. When it finally becomes dark at dusk, a person or animal’s ability to see small details is much lower than during the middle of the day.

Visual performance needs change with the ambient light level, Mangel said. We need to see fine spatial details on bright days and to see large dim objects on moonless nights.

“Evolution has made trade-offs so that we can see well on bright days and on moonless nights,” he said.

“My findings show that the change in background light triggers a process in the retina that normally takes hours. This process involves assembling and moving the GABA receptor protein to a specific site in the retina when it is bright, and disassembling the same protein and moving it away from the synapse as it becomes dark,” Mangel said.

“The reason our acuity stayed high during the total eclipse is that there wasn’t enough time for protein disassembly to take place.”

About this neuroscience research article

Funding: The National Institutes of Health and the Plum Foundation supported the research.

Source: Stuart Mangel – Ohio State University

Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

Original Research: Abstract for “Dopamine Regulation of GABAA Receptors Contributes to Light/Dark Modulation of the ON-Cone Bipolar Cell Receptive Field Surround in the Retina” by Antoine Chaffiol, Masaaki Ishii, Yu Cao, and Stuart C. Mangel in Current Biology. Published online

August 24 2017 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.063

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Ohio State University “Superhuman ‘Night’ Vision During the Total Eclipse?.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews,5 September 2017.

<https://neurosciencenews.com/eclipse-vision-7421/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Ohio State University (2017, September 5). Superhuman ‘Night’ Vision During the Total Eclipse?. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved September 5, 2017 from https://neurosciencenews.com/eclipse-vision-7421/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Ohio State University “Superhuman ‘Night’ Vision During the Total Eclipse?.” https://neurosciencenews.com/eclipse-vision-7421/ (accessed September 5, 2017).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]

Abstract

Dopamine Regulation of GABAA Receptors Contributes to Light/Dark Modulation of the ON-Cone Bipolar Cell Receptive Field Surround in the Retina

Highlights

•In retina, cone bipolar cell surround light responses depend on dopamine receptors

•GABA responses of cone bipolar dendrites depend on their dopamine receptors

•Cone bipolar cell surround light responses depend on GABAA receptors

•GABAA receptor expression of cone bipolar dendrites depends on light and dopamine

Summary

Cone bipolar cells are interneurons that receive synaptic input from cone photoreceptor cells and provide the output of the first synaptic layer of the retina. These cells exhibit center-surround receptive fields, a prototype of lateral inhibition between neighboring sensory cells in which stimulation of the receptive field center excites the cell whereas stimulation of the surrounding region laterally inhibits the cell. This fundamental sensory coding mechanism facilitates spatial discrimination and detection of stimulus edges. However, although it is well established that the receptive field surround is strongest when ambient or background illumination is most intense, e.g., at midday, and that the surround is minimal following maintained darkness, the synaptic mechanisms that produce and modulate the surround have not been resolved. Using electrical recording of bipolar cells under experimental conditions in which the cells exhibited surround light responses, and light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry, we show in the rabbit retina that bright-light-induced activation of dopamine D1 receptors located on ON-center cone bipolar cell dendrites increases the expression and activity of GABAA receptors on the dendrites of the cells and that surround light responses depend on endogenous GABAA receptor activation. We also show that maintained darkness and D1 receptor blockade following maintained illumination and D1 receptor activation result in minimal GABAA receptor expression and activity and greatly diminished surrounds. Modulation of the D1/GABAA receptor signaling pathway of ON-cBC dendrites by the ambient light level facilitates detection of spatial details on bright days and large dim objects on moonless nights.

“Dopamine Regulation of GABAA Receptors Contributes to Light/Dark Modulation of the ON-Cone Bipolar Cell Receptive Field Surround in the Retina” by Antoine Chaffiol, Masaaki Ishii, Yu Cao, and Stuart C. Mangel in Current Biology. Published online

August 24 2017 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.063

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