The Neurobiology of Vision at the MBL

ALL men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else.

In the first lines of his book Metaphysics, Aristotle argues that we love the sense of vision most of all. Researchers at the MBL have been no exception to this, and have made monumental contibutions to our understanding of the sense. This exhibit focouses on the special contributions to vision sciences made by MBL scientists, in three parts. First, we will visit the work of Selig Hecht and his student, Nobel Prize winner, George Wald, and the photochemical theories of color vision he developed working summer at the MBL. In the scond section, we explore the the physiology of vision according to Haldan "Keffer" Hartline, another Nobel Prize winner. In the final section, we will move towards ethology of vision at the MBL, looking at the work of Roger Hanlon.

In each section of the exhibit the author has made no attempt to give an exhaustive biographical or scientific treatment. Rather an attempt was made to introduce the reader to the biographical and intellectual history in an approachable way. Interested parties would do well to read the primary sources referenced by each section for the juicy details.

Suggested citation
LaTourelle, Jonathan Jacob. 2015. "The Neurobiology of Vision at the MBL". MBL History Project digital exhibit. http://history.archives.mbl.edu/exploring/exhibits/neurobiology-vision-mbl
Bibliography

Note: There is no science without a scientist, and so the author has attempted to maintain the essential truth of that—namely that at each stage of the scientific process there is a person looking at evidence and making judgments. However there is almost no personal biography, and much of the professional biography of each author has been abridged dramatically. In spite of this, the reader should keep in mind that each of these individuals were complicated people who share at least a job description. George Wald once said, “A scientist should be the happiest of men. Not that science isn't serious; but as everyone knows, being serious is one way of being happy, just as being gay is one way of being unhappy”. Each of these individuals had a scientific ethic, as well as a body of scientific work, and where possible, the author of each section has attempted to not forget the romanticism of the spirit of investigation, or the fact that many of these people were excited by a simple truth—after all, they were seeing things no one else had seen before. That majesty can be easy to forget if you are an outsider new to the complexities of visual physiology, but these scientists never forgot it.

Bibliography

Universalizing Photochemical Theories of Vision: Hecht, Wald, and the Marine Biological Laboratory

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Haldan Keffer Hartline, a Prize, and Two Accidents

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  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "Influence of light of very low intensity on phototropic reactions of animals." Journal of General Physiology 6, no. 2 (1923): 137-152.
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "Inhbition in the eye of limulus." Journal of General Physiology 39, no. 5 (1956).
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "intensity and duration in the excitation of single photoreceptor units." Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology, 1934: 229-247.
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "The dark adaptation of the eye of Limulus, as manifested by its electric response to illumination." Journal of General Physiology 13, no. 3 (1930).
  • Hartline, Haldan Keffer. "Visual receptors and the retinal interaction." Nobel Lecture, December 1967.
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Roger Hanlon, Universal Camouflage, and Studying Vision at the MBL in the 21st Century

  • Allen, J.J., L.M. Mäthger, A. Barbosa, and R.T. Hanlon. "Cuttlefish use visual cues to control 3-dimensional skin papillae for camouflage." Journal of Comparative Physiology, 2009: 547-555.
  • Chiaoa, Chuan-Chin, J. Kenneth Wickiser, Justine J. Allen, Brock Genter, and Roger T. Hanlon. "Hyperspectral imaging of cuttlefish camouflage indicates good color match in the eyes of fish predators." PNAS 108, no. 22 (May 2011): 9148-9153.
  • Hanlon, Roger. "Cephalopod dynamic camouflage." Current biology , 2007: 400-404.
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  • Ulmer, K.M., K.C. Buresch, M.M. Kossodo, L.M. Mäthger, L.A. Siemann, and R.T. Hanlon. " Vertical Visual Features Have a Strong Influence on Cuttlefish Camouflage ." Biological Bulletin 224, no. 2 (2013): 110-118.
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