Binocular vision gene sighted

A team of international researchers have identified an important gene responsible for binocular vision.

The team, led by Dr Catherine Leamey, from the Bosch Institute's Developmental Neurobiology Laboratory, collaborated with scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Max-Planck institute for Biochemistry in Germany to make a breakthrough discovery — identifying a molecule that specifically regulates the alignment of projection from both eyes.

Normal human vision is a single in-depth view of visual space that integrates signals from both eyes. This process is disrupted in people with visual disorders, such as strabismic amblyopia.

The researchers first discovered the binocular vision molecule, Ten_m3, in a screen to identify genes that are important in establishing appropriate patterns of neural connectivity in the developing visual system.

They found that Ten_m3 is critical for the brain to meld images from the two eyes into one useful picture in the brain. This discovery may lead to new treatments for sensory disorders in which people experience the strange phenomenon of seeing better with one eye covered.