Does what the eye sees in the first few days of life influence how it processes information later on? A new study from Reynolds et al., reveals that in developing zebrafish, growing up in horizontal or vertical stripey ‘worlds’ can drastically affect how neurons in the eye function and even change the shape of neurons in the retina.

Professor Robert Hindges, senior author on the study, discusses the results of the study with Dr Francesca Greenstreet, and what these findings may mean for our understanding of brain development.

Notes: In this episode Professor Hindges mentions the Müller Lyer illusion, an optical illusion where lines of the same length appear to many to be of different length.

More information about the study, alongside a video showing images from the virtual reality can be found at www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/news