Making Eye Contact

Vision begins at the eye's retina – activated by light, electrical signals from the retina travel along neurons via the optic nerve to the brain where they're processed into 'sight'. As this system develops, the neurons don't land randomly in the brain, they follow a closely-regulated pattern reflecting the point of origin in the retina – mapping to the brain in a process called retinotopy. Here, in fruit flies researchers uncover the fine details, involving molecular gradients and adhesive forces, that control the preservation of the eye pattern as the neurons' projections (axons) establish in the brain

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Read the published research article here

Written by Lindsey Goff

Lindsey Goff

Editor-in-Chief

Formerly immunologist for Cancer Research UK, Lindsey has since moved into the field of scientific publishing. She looks after all BPoD editorial matters.

• Image from work by Melinda Kehribar and colleagues
• Division of Neurobiology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Current Biology, February 2026