Eye in Fish

Tilt your head to the side to avoid a tennis ball, burrito or the tip of a sword and your eyes will automatically tilt in the opposite direction. The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) works to stabilise our gazes. Until recently, scientists thought VOR develops from visual cues shortly after birth – but experiments in zebrafish, which share many developmental steps with humans, suggest otherwise. Scientists followed the steely stares of developing fish eyes like these – shown in bright colours here from three days old (left) to 15 days old (right). They found similar tilt reflexes in visually able and blind fish, suggesting VOR takes shape much earlier in development, prior to vision. The team believe the neuromuscular junction – where nerve cells meet the muscle cells – may be the source of VOR, and the good place to look for clues to eye misalignment conditions like strabismus.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from NYU Grossman School of Medicine - relating to work by Paige Leary and colleagues
• Department of Otolaryngology, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, and the Neuroscience Institute, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
• Image originally published with no restrictions –  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Research published in Science, January 2025