On the location of a "central retina" in mice

Abstract

The retinal topography of mammals reflects significant influences of the visual environment. In diurnal species, local specializations, such as the visual streak (VS) for panoramic vision and the area centralis or fovea for binocular vision, play a key role in optimizing visual perception and species viability. While the location of these sites is typically considered the retinal center, the definition of a "central retina" is less clear in nocturnal species. In mice, the most frequently used model in ophthalmologic research, the location of a central retina is hardly discernible in retinal images, neither in retinal structure (OCT sections) nor in vascular organization (SLO and angiography). In this study, we compare the murine retina with that of a diurnal rodent, the Mongolian gerbil (MG). We found that the S-opsin transitional zone (OTZ), a region characterized by the change from S-to M-opsin dominance along the dorsoventral opsin gradient in mice, has a similar relative position in the retina to the VS in the Mongolian gerbil, suggesting an evolutionary positional homology between these regions. Further, since the S-opsin-dominant region is optimized for visualizing the sky and the M-opsin-dominant region for visualizing the ground, the OTZ in between -much like the VS- naturally points toward the horizon. We therefore propose considering the OTZ as the position of a "central retinal area" in mice. Determining the anatomical-physiological center is particularly important to obtain meaningful relative measures such as averages across different retinal areas, as the common referencing to the optic nerve head (ONH) in mice does not take into account retinal organization and the eccentric position of the functional center.