Retinal cells 'go with the flow' to assess own motion through space

A new study helps to explain how specialized retinal cells help stabilize vision by perceiving how their owner is moving.|

Think of the way that a long flat highway seems to widen out around you from a single point on the horizon, while in the rear-view mirror everything narrows back to a single point behind you. Or think of the way that when a spaceship in a movie accelerates to its "warp" or "hyper" speed, the illusion is conveyed by the stars turning into streaks that zip radially outward off the screen. That's how a new study in Nature says specialized cells in the retina sense their owner's motion through the world -- by sensing that same radiating flow.