ReviewProgress in retinal and eye research2013
Adaptation of the central retina for high acuity vision: cones, the fovea and the avascular zone.
Review in Progress in retinal and eye research, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 164 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
164 citing papers in PubMed.
- Vertical asymmetry in central color evaluation: How spatial position and scene structure modulate the perceived size of colored regions.Journal of vision · 2026Article
- Early Eye Organoids Demonstrate Cadherin and Semaphorin Disruption inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Development of the zebrafish foveal analogue: a quantitative atlas of high-acuity zone growth and retinal regionalisation.Biology open · 2026Article
- Diversity and Feature Selectivity of Primate Retinal Ganglion Cells.Annual review of vision science · 2026Review
- Synaptic Organization of the Primate Retina: Toward a Human Foveal Connectome.Annual review of vision science · 2026Review
- Novel Quantitative Metrics for Foveal Hypoplasia Derived from Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Using AngioTool.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Photopic pupil size, foveal anatomy and emmetropisation: a cross-sectional study in adult eyes.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2026Article
- The human THRB thyroid hormone receptor gene and the puzzle of retinal disease phenotypes.Developmental biology · 2026Review
- High-Fidelity Backpropagation through Primate Foveal Cones.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Convergent re-evolution of CNS structures: focus on the fovea.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2026Review
- Investments in photoreceptors compete with investments in optics to determine eye design.eLife · 2026Article
- Outer retinal band segmentation in healthy subjects: comparative study between human grading and deep convolutional neural networks.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2026Article
- Comparison of Transcript and Protein Abundance in Human Donor Retinas Support Extending Postmortem Interval From 12 to 18 Hours to Expand the Donor Pool for Biomedical Research.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- HIGH-FIDELITY BACKPROPAGATION THROUGH PRIMATE FOVEAL CONES.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Registration-Based Analysis of the Three-Dimensional Shape of the Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer for Detection of Glaucomatous Defects.Translational vision science & technology · 2026Article
- Skin Melanin Content and the Foveal Avascular Zone Correlation in a Healthy White Population.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Visual Acuity Provides a More Meaningful Measure of Vision-Related Functioning Than Mesopic Microperimetry in Age-Related Macular Degeneration Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study.Translational vision science & technology · 2026Article
- Association between Baseline Subfoveal Choroidal Thickness and Anatomical and Functional Outcomes in Geographic Atrophy.Ophthalmology science · 2026Article
- Integration of in situ hybridization and scRNA-seq data provides a 2D topographical map of the developing retina across species.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Detection and localization of conspecifics in ghost knifefish are influenced by the relationship between the spatial organization of receptors and signals.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2026Article
104 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Presence of a fovea centralis is directly linked to molecular specification of an avascular area in central retina, before the fovea (or 'pit') begins to form. Modelling suggests that mechanical forces, generated within the eye, initiate formation of a pit within the avascular area, and its later remodelling in the postnatal period. Within the avascular area the retina is dominated by 'midget' circuitry, in which signals are transferred from a single cone to a single bipolar cell, then a single ganglion cell. Thus in inner, central retina there are relatively few lateral connections between neurons. This renders the region adaptable to tangential forces, that translocate of ganglion cells laterally/centrifugally, to form the fovea. Optical coherence tomography enables live imaging of the retina, and shows that there is greater variation in the morphology of foveae in humans than previously thought. This variation is associated with differences in size of the avascular area and appears to be genetically based, but can be modified by environmental factors, including prematurity. Even when the fovea is absent (foveal hypoplasia), cones in central retina adopt an elongated and narrow morphology, enabling them to pack more densely to increase the sampling rate, and to act as more effective waveguides. Given these findings, what then is the adaptive advantage of a fovea? We suggest that the advantages of having a pit in central retina are relatively few, and minor, but together work to enhance acuity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.