Image of the Week Light and Darkness 092617

Richard Wingate, Wellcome Images.

When light from this image hits the light-sensitive cells in your retina, those cells translate that physical information into the electric language of the brain. Shortly after, retinal ganglion cells (like the hamster version pictured above) relay those signals deep into your brain’s visual processing center. Ganglia live in the retina for easy information gathering, but their long axons braid together to form the optic nerve, which ferries visual signals to the brain’s core for processing.