“It’s the first time for me that one of our publications literally changes the textbook that I am teaching with,” says Ingo Braasch, an assistant professor in the integrative biology department in the College of Natural Science at Michigan State University.
This work, published in the journal Science, also means that this type of eye-brain connection predates animals living on land. The existing theory had been that this connection first evolved in terrestrial creatures and, from there, carried on into humans where scientists believe it helps with our depth perception and 3D vision.