Harvard researchers have discovered a previously unknown type of retinal
cell that plays an exclusive and unusual role in mice: detecting upward
motion. The cells reflect their function in the physical arrangement of
their dendrites, branch-like structures on neuronal cells that form a
communicative network with other dendrites and neurons in the brain.
The work, led by neuroscientists Joshua R. Sanes and Markus Meister, is described in a letter in the journal Nature.
