About this Research Topic
Life and light are linked. All living beings respond to light. The most basic response is the synchronization with the day-night cycles, i.e. circadian rhythms. In animals, luminous stimuli trigger vision which is the formation of images representing the world. And so, most animals rely on vision to survive. How the visual system is conformed is the result of evolution, where structure meets function. In this Research Topic we aim to compile current knowledge on the structure and function of the visual system across the Animalia kingdom.
The anatomy of the eye, retina, visual pathways and relay centers in the brain differs among species, and different evolutionary solutions have been found to assure the survival of the fittest. Vision needs are different in nocturnal or diurnal, aquatic or aerial animals, and the requirements of a predator differ from those of the prey. Some animals need to see movement but no detail, while highly social animals, such as primates, require a high resolution and color coding to process faces and gestural nuances. There is a great variety of solutions: there are composite eyes and retina-based ones. In some species photoreceptors look at the lens, and in others the retinal ganglion cells do. Here we aim to collect current knowledge on the visual system, mainly focused on the light sensory tissues (retina, ommatidia) in the Animalia kingdom (Metazoa) from invertebrate to vertebrate, including humans.
In this Research Topic, we welcome submissions in the form of original research articles, reviews, methodological and technological advances on the diverse solutions that natural selection has created for animals to see. We welcome manuscripts addressing the diversity of the visual system, with a focus on light sensory tissues (from ommatidia to retinas), in Metazoans from structural (in vivo and ex vivo), functional, and behavioral points of view, as well as manuscripts tackling the principles and molecular mechanisms that rule the anatomical and functional evolution of the visual system.
Keywords: retina, composite eyes, vision, evolutionary neuroscience, visual system
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
