Editing Retina (section)

== History ==
Around 300 [[BCE]], [[Herophilos]] identified the retina from dissections of cadaver eyes. He called it the ''arachnoid'' layer, from its resemblance to a spider web, and ''retiform'', from its resemblance to a casting net. The term [[Arachnoid mater|arachnoid]] came to refer to a layer around the brain; the term ''retiform'' came to refer to the ''retina''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dobson|first=J. F.|date=March 1925|title=Herophilus of Alexandria|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine|language=en|volume=18|issue=Sect_Hist_Med|pages=19–32|doi=10.1177/003591572501801704|pmid=19984605 |pmc=2201994 |issn=0035-9157}}</ref>

Between 1011 and 1021 CE, [[Ibn Al-Haytham]] published numerous experiments demonstrating that sight occurs from light reflecting from objects into the eye. This is consistent with [[intromission theory]] and against [[emission theory (vision)|emission theory]], the theory that sight occurs from rays emitted by the eyes. However, Ibn Al-Haytham decided that the retina could not be responsible for the beginnings of vision because the image formed on it was inverted. Instead he decided it must begin at the surface of the lens.<ref>Sabra, A. I. (Ed.). (1011–1021/1989). The optics of Ibn Al-Haytham: Books I-III: On direct vision (A. I. Sabra, Trans.). The Warburg Institute.</ref>

In 1604, [[Johannes Kepler]] worked out the optics of the eye and decided that the retina must be where sight begins. He left it up to other scientists to reconcile the inverted retinal image with our perception of the world as upright.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullarticle/630807|access-date=2023-02-23|journal=Archives of Ophthalmology|doi=10.1001/archopht.1973.01000040061014|title=Kepler's Discovery of the Retinal Image |year=1973 |last1=Fishman |first1=R. S. |volume=89 |issue=1 |pages=59–61 |pmid=4567856 }}</ref>

In 1894, [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]] published the first major characterization of retinal neurons in ''Retina der Wirbelthiere'' (''The Retina of Vertebrates'').<ref name="nobelprize.org">{{Cite web |title = Santiago Ramón y Cajal – Biographical |url = https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1906/cajal-bio.html |website = www.nobelprize.org |access-date = 20 October 2015 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151006122025/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1906/cajal-bio.html |archive-date = 6 October 2015 }}</ref>

[[George Wald]], [[Haldan Keffer Hartline]], and [[Ragnar Granit]] won the 1967 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for their scientific research on the retina.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1967/press.html |title = Nobelprize.org |website = nobelprize.org |access-date = 5 December 2017 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170630125508/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1967/press.html |archive-date = 30 June 2017 }}</ref>

A recent [[University of Pennsylvania]] study calculated that the approximate [[Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] of human retinas is 8.75 megabits per second, whereas a [[guinea pig]]'s retinal transfer rate is 875 kilobits per second.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9633-calculating-the-speed-of-sight.html |title = Calculating the speed of sight |newspaper = New Scientist |access-date = 5 December 2017 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150531174437/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9633-calculating-the-speed-of-sight.html |archive-date = 31 May 2015 |last = Reilly |first = Michael }}</ref>

[[Robert MacLaren|MacLaren]] & Pearson and colleagues at [[University College London]] and [[Moorfields Eye Hospital]] in London, in 2006, showed that [[photoreceptor cells]] could be transplanted successfully in the mouse retina if donor cells were at a critical developmental stage.<ref>{{cite journal |title = Retinal repair by transplantation of photoreceptor precursors |journal = Nature |doi = 10.1038/nature05161 |pmid = 17093405 |volume = 444 |issue = 7116 |date = November 2006 |pages = 203–207 |last1 = MacLaren |first1 = RE |last2 = Pearson |first2 = RA |last3 = MacNeil |first3 = A |display-authors = etal |bibcode = 2006Natur.444..203M |url = https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62596/1/nature05161.pdf |hdl = 2027.42/62596 |s2cid = 4415311 |hdl-access = free }}</ref> Recently Ader and colleagues in Dublin showed, using the electron microscope, that transplanted photoreceptors formed synaptic connections.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1 = Bartsch |first1 = U. |last2 = Oriyakhel |first2 = W. |last3 = Kenna |first3 = P. F. |last4 = Linke |first4 = S. |last5 = Richard |first5 = G. |last6 = Petrowitz |first6 = B. |last7 = Humphries |first7 = P. |last8 = Farrar |first8 = G. J. |last9 = Ader |first9 = M. |doi = 10.1016/j.exer.2008.01.018 |title = Retinal cells integrate into the outer nuclear layer and differentiate into mature photoreceptors after subretinal transplantation into adult mice |journal = Experimental Eye Research |volume = 86 |issue = 4 |pages = 691–700 |year = 2008 |pmid = 18329018 }}</ref>

In 2012, [[Sebastian Seung]] and his laboratory at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] launched [[EyeWire]], an online [[Citizen science]] game where players trace neurons in the retina.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://eyewire.org/about/ |title = About: EyeWire |access-date = 26 March 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120213150425/http://eyewire.org/about/ |archive-date = 13 February 2012 }}</ref> The goals of the EyeWire project are to identify specific cell types within the known broad classes of retinal cells, and to [[Brain mapping|map the connections]] between neurons in the retina, which will help to determine how vision works.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://eyewire.org/retina |title = Retina << EyeWire |access-date = 27 March 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120324121236/http://eyewire.org/retina/ |archive-date = 24 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://eyewire.org/ |title = EyeWire |access-date = 27 March 2012 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120424153908/http://eyewire.org/ |archive-date = 24 April 2012 }}</ref>