Why animals don't have infrared vision: Source of the visual system's 'false alarms' discovered
Thursday, June 9, 2011 - 15:30
in Physics & Chemistry
On rare occasion, the light-sensing photoreceptor cells in the eye misfire and signal to the brain as if they have captured photons, when in reality they haven't. For years this phenomenon remained a mystery. Neuroscientists have now discovered that a light-capturing pigment molecule in photoreceptors can be triggered by heat, as well, giving rise to these false alarms.