Did you know that your retinas are part of your central nervous system?

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I am scrambling to catch up in neurobio....  In Week 3, she's telling us about neuroanatomy and development, and she told us where retinas come from.

According to the Wikipedia entry on retinas:

In vertebrate embryonic development, the retina and the optic nerve originate as outgrowths of the developing brain, so the retina is considered part of the central nervous system (CNS) and is actually brain tissue.^[1][2] It is the only part of the CNS that can be visualized non-invasively.


Wow, eh?????  A definite "who knew??" moment for me!

I knew eye docs look for issues beyond strictly eyes, when they examine our eyes, but I never knew what they are actually looking at, nor did I know why they were able to see it, looking into our eyes........................

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