ArticleeLife2026
Investments in photoreceptors compete with investments in optics to determine eye design.
Article in eLife, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Photoreceptor recordings reveal remarkable acuity in small solitary bees compared with larger species.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Olfactory performance explains duality of antennal architectural designs in Lepidoptera.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Eyes provide opportunities to understand the function, design, development, and evolution of elaborate sense organs. We take a new cost-benefit approach to understanding eye design by considering that optics and photoreceptors compete for the resources invested in an integrated system. We investigate this competition theoretically and empirically using a new measure of cost, specific volume. This common currency for optics and photoreceptors relates investments to image quality via geometrical, optical, and physiological constraints. By covering the morphospace of an eye of given type and cost, we model how trading optics against photoreceptors changes information capacity. In apposition compound eyes and simple eyes, an optimum configuration maximises efficiency. Efficiency requires heavy investment in photoreceptors and depends on photoreceptor energy consumption. Optimum information capacities and efficiencies scale non-linearly with total investment. Diurnal insects' apposition eyes follow trends that promote efficiency: photoreceptor arrays take 40-80% of total specific volume, photoreceptor length increases systematically with spatial resolution, and photoreceptors are exceptionally long. Thus, competition between optics and photoreceptors shapes eye design, and matching investments in optics and photoreceptors to improve efficiency is a design principle. Our new methodology can be developed to view the adaptive radiation of eyes through a cost-benefit lens.
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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.