Time Spent Indoors Linked to Increased Risk of Myopia in Children
Parents often try to get their children to go outside so that they can be more physically active, get some sunlight, vitamin D and fresh air. All of these things are good and it turns out there's another benefit: to experience natural light instead of artificial light in order to prevent myopia or nearsightedness.
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Scientists have recently discovered a cell within the retina that can malfunction and possibly cause myopia. With billions affected by myopia, the rising incidence is linked to the amount of time children spend away from natural light that lead to the dysfunction in the cell. There are 50 different types of retinal ganglion cells that convey information for us to visualize the world, like the color and motion of objects in space.
The research will be published in the printed issue of Current Biology on February 20th. The newly discovered retina cell is highly sensitive to light and controls how the eye grows and develops. When the cell instructs the eye to grow longer, myopia nearsightedness develops which requires corrective lenses to counter the misshaped eye.
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The retina contains a signal that focuses what the eye sees and is also involved in regulating our growth. It was previously unknown which cell was responsible for carrying the signal, but now Greg Schwartz, and his colleague Adam Mani, think they found the missing link of this cell, along with the neural circuit that enables this visual function. The cell has been named "ON Delayed" due to its slowed response when light becomes brighter.
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Indoor lighting effects the cell differently because of a high red/green contrast. This activates clusters of photoreceptors which creates an artificial contrast image on the retina. The "ON Delayed" retinal ganglion cell would be overstimulated leading to abnormal overgrowth, resulting in myopia.
The scientists are looking to develop a therapeutic target to control myopia by hoping to find a gene specific to the cell which they can then turn the activity up or down to try to create or cure myopia. This could also be used to potentially treat blindness and improve the function of artificial retinal prosthetics.
I wonder if that's why the stereotypical imagery of a "geek" or "nerd" is that of someone with glasses. This knowledge is powerful for saving children's eyesight if it turns out to be concrete. It makes sense to me.
References:
- Myopia cell discovered in retina: Dysfunction of cell may be linked to amount of time a child spends indoors
- Circuit Mechanisms of a Retinal Ganglion Cell with Stimulus-Dependent Response Latency and Activation Beyond Its Dendrites
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Interesting... I spent plenty of time outdoors, but the rest of the time I was in my room with my nose buried in a book; my nearsightedness became fairly acute by the time I was in my mid-20's. I also remember my mother telling me I would "ruin my eyes" from reading by flashlight under the covers after "lights out;" maybe she intuitively knew something.
Reality displays truth. "Wives tales" can often be right. Experiences of causal interaction can conclude something with certain degrees of accuracy. People seeing the past result of certain behavior leads to a repetition of something in reality (that being nearsightedness) as a certain degree of reliable truth, despite it not being "measured" in a more rigorous way like with science, but all the instances recurring is a measurement in reality of a pattern repeating that we can recognize. Just wanted to add that. So yes, the underlying logical processing at an automatic intuitive level can recognize this, or also blind tradition of repeating what parents said form someone who once recognized the pattern and started saying it hehee.
I wonder if perhaps exposure to the outdoors would help reverse the myopic effect, or is it too late once the damage is done?
I think not. The deformation has already occurred from the cell signalling.
A comprehensive summary of an interesting study.
Really interesting. It jibes with glasses popping up all over the place nowadays.
People in county jail's and Special Housing Units (aka the Hole) are often only allowed to be in real sunlight 1-3 times a week for 30min-1 hour if at all. They are also either in a 6'x9' cell or maybe a 30'x100' "pod", all under florescent lighting. So, they never get to exercise their eyes by focusing long distances and often spend days staring into books, at cards in their hands, or at TVs.