Infographic: Behind Mouse Eyes

A mesh records retinal cells’ firings in live animals.

Written byRuth Williams
| 1 min read

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1. A mesh of multiple electrodes is injected toward the rear of the mouse eye, where it unfurls onto the retina.

2. Wires connected to the mesh extend from the corner of the animal’s eye to enable electrical recording of retinal activity in response to stimulation, such as bars of light shown on a screen.

While the animals are restrained, their heads immobilized, for sessions of light stimulation and recording, they are free to move and behave normally between sessions. Remarkably, the meshes have little effect on vision, and after a few weeks they detach from the retina.

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Meet the Author

  • ruth williams

    Ruth is a freelance journalist. Before freelancing, Ruth was a news editor for the Journal of Cell Biology in New York and an assistant editor for Nature Reviews Neuroscience in London. Prior to that, she was a bona fide pipette-wielding, test tube–shaking, lab coat–shirking research scientist. She has a PhD in genetics from King’s College London, and was a postdoc in stem cell biology at Imperial College London. Today she lives and writes in Connecticut.

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November 2018

Intelligent Science

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