Let there be light! 

How light can change the developing brain 
 
By Kayla Maanum
May 10, 2019

Image from AdobeStock.

Don’t lie. You’ve been staring at your brightly-lit smartphone for hours today. But did
you know that light, including the light coming from your iPad, could be changing the
structure of your brain?
A recent study from UC Berkeley have shown that light, an environmental stimulus, can
alter the shape and form of cells and cell connections within the developing brains of
mice.

Scientists Alexandre Tiriac and Ben Smith use sophisticated imaging to understand how
the neurons from the eyes project in an orderly fashion to regions on the same and
opposite sides of the brain.

The process they investigate is called “eye-specific segregation,” which involves the
orderly sorting of some of the cell’s “branches,” or axons, to each side of the brain. These
neurons connect to other cells in a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral
geniculate nucleus, or dLGN. There are two dLGN; one in each brain hemisphere.

VISUAL DEPRIVATION IN DEVELOPMENT DISRUPTS NEURON

ORGANIZATION IN THE BRAIN’S VISUAL SYSTEM.

Their​ study​ found that when mice are raised in complete darkness from birth, the mice
developed less organized splitting of these cellular axons, even at young ages when mice
eyelids are still sealed shut. In dark-reared mice, there is more “mixing” (less organized)
between the same-side and opposite-side axons before they reach the deeper dLGN.

Published in ​Neuron​ in November of 2018, the study is high impact for a couple of
reasons: (1) it claims that visual experience, or the structured light that hits the retina
in the back of the eye, influences organization of brain circuits, and (2) light can be
detected even at an early age when the neurons in the eye are not yet maturely wired up
to the brain. Their findings contradict other ​studies​ which argue that light is not
necessary for certain structural development in the brain and that normal neuronal
development occurs independent of light exposure, but is primarily encoded by our
genetics.

Tiriac and Smith’s findings are not the only to show a role for light in brain
development. Their research has contributed to growing knowledge that light
deprivation or excess can cause abnormal brain development.

LIGHT ALSO AFFECTS BRAIN REGIONS INVOLVED IN COORDINATION

AND MEMORY.

Changes in ambient light levels and visual deprivation have also shown to slow
movement of cells within the ​cerebellum​, the hindbrain region responsible for
movement and coordination. In the ​hippocampus​, the center for memory and learning,
too little light slows growth of neurons.

Clearly, light plays instructive or regulatory role in several different brain regions. This
finding is important to note in today’s world, where technological advancements using
blue light have been shown to also ​alter human physiology​--for the worse.

Given the detrimental results of too little or too much light on neuronal and hormonal
physiology, it is paramount that further research is pursued into how light in the
environment and from our devices is affecting our bodies before we start experiencing
consequences.

So put your phone down and soak up a little sunlight, will ya?