National Geographic - UK (2022-04)

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PHOTOS (FROMMINT IMAGES LIM TOP): EOSTA/NATURE AND MITED/ALAMY STOCK PHOTOORE; TIM WINTER, ALA

HAVE YOU EVER had a dream so vivid that

for real life? What if you actually did ope

you’d envisioned with them closed? Accord

study, you may have—at birth. Researche

newborn mice and found that, in the few d

eyes open, their still developing retinas si

patch informational waves. Previously ran

waves start flowing from a mouse’s templ

same direction visual stimuli flow when

forward. As lab director Michael Crair ex

state “allows a mouse to anticipate what

opening its eyes,” preparing the animal to

its surroundings. Human babies also exhi

at birth—discerning objects, detecting mo

Crair says, “we are born capable of many

least in rudimentary form.” —HICKS WOGA

NEUROSCIENCE

MICE AND HUMAN

IMAGINE ALL THE